State lawmakers moved one step closer to abandoning plans to construct a state-of-the-art inpatient mental health hospital in Oklahoma City amid massive cost overruns and construction delays.
A joint legislative subcommittee on Wednesday gave preliminary approval for the State Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services to abandon plans to build the Donahue Behavioral Health Campus located near the Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City campus.
They instead greenlighted spending millions in federal American Rescue Plan Act money to purchase land and renovate an existing building in central Oklahoma City.
Officials did not reveal where in central Oklahoma City that they're proposing to open a new inpatient mental health hospital, but said it would house 197 beds. That's far fewer than the 330 beds that were supposed to be built in the Donahue facility. It was expected to include 55 beds specifically designated for children and adolescents.
Skip Leonard, the agency's interim chief financial officer, said his agency wants to spend $19.1 million to purchase land and $31.5 million to renovate the two buildings on the site.
Mental Health Commissioner Allie Friesen said the latest hospital design would have less focus on children, but could house criminal defendants needing competency restoration services. Such a renovation would provide the state an additional 32 beds to comply with the recent lawsuit settlement, she said.
When mental health officials first pitched the Donahue facility, they promised the bed count would increase capacity by 100 beds compared to what's currently available at Griffin Memorial Hospital in Norman, which it was intended to replace.
Friesen said property owners at the prospective site have been transparent about the potential flaws at the new site that was constructed in 2001 and last renovated in 2017.
"We feel confident that we have a plan moving forward," she said, adding that it still meets the mark of what the agency was aiming for.
It wasn't clear Wednesday how much money the state has already spent on the construction of the Donahue Behavioral Health Campus.
Leonard told lawmakers during a budget presentation Wednesday that the agency had spent about $6.45 million on the Donahue project, but Melissa Houston said there are actually three different expenditure amounts that need to be rectified ahead of a final vote taken by the full committee. Houston's consulting firm is helping oversee the Legislature's expenditure of APRA money.
Houston said lawmakers initially budgeted about $87 million to construct the new Donahue hospital and expected to net $50 million from the sale of the land in Norman where Griffin Memorial is located. The total project cost was $137 million, and the facility was supposed to open in December 2025, she said.
Currently, there's about a $125 million funding gap in the budget, and the facility will not open until 2028, she said.
The plan to move ahead with a new inpatient hospital location still needs approval from the Joint Committee on Pandemic Relief Funding.
Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence.
