Joining the parade of local governments that have put their mental health services in private hands, Howard County has hired the Sheppard Pratt Health System to provide psychiatric treatment to up to 700 patients previously served by the county Health Department.
County officials hope the shift -- effective Feb. 1 -- will be a more cost-effective way of providing psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and licensed counselors for the county's children, adolescents, adults and the elderly.
But the change has caused a stir in the county mental health community, with seven doctors and clinicians opting to leave the county's program rather than stay on under Sheppard Pratt. Several joined another private, nonprofit practice, Developmental Services Group in Columbia.
"In a way, I think maybe it could be better for the patients and for the residents," said Mary Sue Baker, acting health officer of the Howard County Health Department. Patients being treated by the now-departed doctors and clinicians will be able to choose between Sheppard Pratt and other services, while still paying on the same sliding-fee scale.
"And consumer choice brings about competition, which is usually a good thing," she said. "But it's still a little too early to tell."
The Sheppard Pratt Health Plan, which will offer mental health services at the former Riverwood Mental Health Clinic in Columbia -- now called the Growth Center -- is part of the Sheppard Pratt Health System of Towson.
Sheppard Pratt, which offers counseling and employee assistance for about 450,000 people statewide, also runs the mental health services systems in the city of Baltimore and in Anne Arundel, Kent, Harford and Baltimore counties and oversees outpatient counseling centers in Frederick and Montgomery counties.
Howard County's decision to privatize its mental health services came after Health Department officials began to fear that it would be too expensive to run the clinic on state and local grant funds.
"We were concerned that we wouldn't be able to make our bottom line," said Baker. "This year, we wouldn't have been able to break even."
Bonnie Katz, director of public affairs for Sheppard Pratt, said the change will have little practical effect on clients, who will continue paying on the same scale as under the county program.
"Instead of doctors and therapists who see the clients in the clinic working for Howard County, they'll work for Sheppard Pratt," she said. "There's really no difference to residents or patients.
"This is really a strategy on the part of Sheppard Pratt to move to where patients live," she said. "It's difficult to operate outpatient programs, but we're learning all the time."
Katz said the transfer of services from Howard's Health Department to Sheppard Pratt "makes sense. Increasingly, when you look at the expense of running these programs, this makes more sense," she said.
Once the "counties did not have the cushion of the grant to fall back on, there was a dilemma," said Katz. "For example, in most mental health clinics, it's customary to have a high no-show rate. With grant funds, the doctor could still be paid with grant funds, but under the fee-for-service system, if a patient doesn't show up, they don't get paid at all.
"What counties have said is 'Let that be somebody else's headache,' " Katz said.
The Growth Center, at 7101 Riverwood Drive in Columbia, will have an open house on Wednesday, April 7 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Refreshments will be served.