After studying the issue for 10 months, a state health department task force has failed to decide which of three Central Maryland psychiatric hospitals should be closed.
In a report released Friday, the task force recommended that one of the three hospitals -- Springfield Hospital Center in Sykesville, Crownsville Hospital Center in Crownsville or Spring Grove Hospital Center in Catonsville -- be identified for closing by June 1997. The hospital would then be closed in 2000.
"Despite diligent efforts, we were unable to distinguish definitive factors that would allow us to identify a specific hospital for consolidation or closure," task force chairman James R. Stanton said.
The Task Force on the Consolidation of State Psychiatric Hospitals was formed in 1992 to study efficiency in state hospitals and to continue the state's effort to care for individuals with serious mental illnesses in community-based settings, instead of psychiatric hospitals. The findings released Friday are the task force's final report.
Last March the task force recommended that one of the three regional psychiatric hospitals be closed by 2000.
Since then the task force has held public forums to gauge community sentiment in the counties that would be most affected by a hospital closing. It also looked closely at the three hospitals to determine if one was better suited for closing than another.
"With a total of less than 2,000 patients, and with our system continuing to downsize, we seriously began to look at whether we needed three large state psychiatric hospitals in Central Maryland," said Stuart B. Silver, director of the state's Mental Hygiene Administration.
The panel, which included state health officials, legislators and mental health advocates, recommended a timetable for the hospital closing and certain conditions that must be met before the closing.
Those conditions include:
* The establishment of state-funded Core Service Agencies, or other structures coordinating mental health services, in all jurisdictions affected by a hospital closing.
* Funding to establish appropriate community-based mental health services before patients are discharged from the affected hospital.
* Appropriate career development and job retraining programs for employees of the closed hospital.
* An assessment of the economic impact of the hospital closing on the affected community.