South Bend company to open second psychiatric hospital in central Indiana

A fast-growing South Bend company plans to open a second psychiatric hospital in central Indiana, the latest move in its national expansion.

Neuropsychiatric Hospitals LLC said it is developing a 64-bed hospital in Greenwood that will serve patients with complex medical and psychiatric conditions. Construction of the 42,000-square-foot building will begin in mid-2020 and is scheduled to conclude in mid-2021.

The company did not say how much it was spending on Greenwood project, located at 795 North Emerson Ave., about one mile south of Franciscan Health Indianapolis’ campus.  The site is vacant and undeveloped. The facility will be called Medical Behavioral Hospital of Indianapolis.

IBJ reported earlier this month that a Texas company had filed an application with the Indiana Department of Homeland Security to develop the property for a behavioral health hospital. Since then, the South Bend company has announced it is the company that will run the hospital, which is being developed in partnership with Medistar Corp. of Houston.

Cameron Gilbert, CEO of Neuropsychiatric Hospitals, said the Greenwood location is just the latest move in what will be additional expansion.

“We expect to announce additional, new hospitals in the near future as we seek to expand throughout the U.S. to provide state-of-the-art patient care for individuals suffering from complex medical and behavioral conditions,” he said in written statement issued late last week.

The company also operates a 50-bed psychiatric hospital on the northwest side of Indianapolis, about five miles from Eagle Creek Park, called NeuroPsychiatric Hospital of Indianapolis. It also operates psychiatric hospitals in Mishawaka, Bremen and Crown Point. It has announced plans to operate facilities in Arizona and Texas. It has also submitted a proposal to the state of Michigan to develop a new, inpatient psychiatric hospital in Kalamazoo County, according to WWMT-TV in Kalamazoo.

Gilbert told the TV station in October that two-thirds of his current patients in Indiana are from Michigan, and that opening a Michigan hospital would “kill two birds with one stone.”

“It opens up my northern Indiana hospitals to Indiana patients and keeping the Michigan patients in Michigan,” he said.

Neuropsychiatric Hospitals treats a wide range of disorders, including dementia, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, traumatic brain injury and autism, according to the company website. It provides evaluations, group and individual therapy, art and music therapy, stress management groups, memory board and other activities and programs.

This is second Indiana project rolled out this year for Medistar. In May, the company and partner Post Acute Medical LLC of Pennsylvania said they would build a 60-bed rehabilitation hospital in Carmel to help patients recover from brain injuries, strokes and other serious conditions.

But the companies have yet to file any plans with the city of Carmel or obtain a hospital license from the Indiana Department of Health. And the companies never identified an address for the 60,000-square-foot project, although they said it would be “strategically located in the vibrant and growing medical corridor along U.S. 31 in Carmel.