Tampa General Hospital Selects Kindred Behavioral Health as Partner to Build and Operate New Inpatient Behavioral Health Hospital

The joint venture, a free-standing 96-bed facility announced in February, will be staffed by USF Health Psychiatry to help meet the region’s rapidly growing need for mental health services.

Tampa, FL (April 12, 2022) – Tampa General Hospital (TGH) and Kindred Behavioral Health, a business unit of LifePoint Health, today announced that they have entered into a joint venture partnership to build and operate the new Tampa General Behavioral Health Hospital.

The partnership is the second between TGH and Kindred and represents the next building block in Tampa’s ever-expanding downtown medical district, as the behavioral health hospital will be located adjacent to the TGH Rehabilitation Hospital, an 80-bed inpatient rehabilitation facility being constructed in partnership with Kindred Rehabilitation Services. Kindred Rehabilitation Services and Kindred Behavioral Health currently operate more than 30 such joint venture, specialty hospitals across 17 states.

“Tampa General is excited to begin our second project in partnership with Kindred to bring these critical health care services to the Tampa community,” stated John Couris, president and CEO of Tampa General Hospital. “Kindred’s operational expertise and track record of delivering exceptional patient outcomes, along with USF Health’s leading-edge, academic-based medical care, mirrors our standards for excellence. Together, we are committed to serving our community’s most critical health care needs – and additional behavioral health services have been identified as a significant need in the Tampa Bay area. We are proud of this partnership that will greatly benefit our entire community.”

The Tampa General Behavioral Health Hospital, a projected investment of $43 million, will employ more than 200 health care professionals to further power Tampa’s medical district that drives talent, biotech, and venture capital to the region, transforming Tampa into a complete ecosystem of health care innovation – crystalizing TGH’s vision of being the safest and most innovative academic health system in America. The four-story, 83,000-square-feet facility will include 96 inpatient beds with the potential to expand to 120 beds.

Tampa General Hospital will provide team member health services, medical support services, staffing, medical staff physician credentialing, a laboratory, and security. Kindred Behavioral Health will manage the day-to-day operations of the new hospital. The renowned physicians with the Department of Psychiatry in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine will provide leading-edge, compassionate care to an expansive patient population. The hospital is expected to break ground in late 2022/early 2023 and officially open in late 2024.

“We are excited to expand our relationship with Tampa General and welcome the clinical expertise and academic environment USF will bring to this endeavor,” said Marty Mann, senior vice president for strategic partnerships, LifePoint Health. “We expect to accept our first patient at the TGH Rehabilitation Hospital this May and welcome our first behavioral health patients at the new behavioral health hospital in 2024. These two specialty hospitals bring together exceptional partners committed to meeting the growing demand for both behavioral health and rehabilitative services, with a dedicated focus on high-quality patient outcomes and a desire to create healthier communities.”

The behavioral health hospital’s full range of inpatient and outpatient services will be led by the region’s leading psychiatrists from USF Health and will offer learning opportunities for medical students and residents at USF Health Morsani College Medicine. This will help address the shortage of behavioral health practitioners in the region by serving as a recruitment tool to attract new medical residents and psychiatrists to Tampa Bay, all while providing access to high-quality, behavioral health care.

“We are proud to provide the highest level of academic psychiatric care in the region and look forward to offering this same standard of critical care in the new behavioral health hospital as part of our ongoing affiliation with TGH,” said Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. “Together, we are working to make Tampa Bay a destination for the finest health care in Florida and the Southeastern United States.”

In addition, the hospital will serve as the first point of evaluation and care, providing initial emergent evaluations for individuals in the community going through a behavioral health crisis. Patients experiencing mental health emergencies will receive emergent evaluation and intensive stabilization with an immediate assessment to determine the safest treatment plan beyond the initial crisis. The behavioral health hospital will also collaborate with private practice physicians.

“This new hospital will be a valuable resource and will help raise the level of mental health care across the Tampa Bay area,” said Glenn Currier, MD, MPH, professor, and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. “A facility like this, one that is dedicated to the needs specific to patients with behavioral and mental health conditions, especially those experiencing acute crises or complex conditions, will be an incredible asset. This specialized hospital will also ease the burden on area emergency rooms, which take in the bulk of psychiatric emergencies but have few options for the inpatient care that is so critical for successful management of many behavioral and mental health conditions.”

ABOUT TAMPA GENERAL HOSPITAL
Tampa General Hospital, a 1,041-bed non-profit academic medical center, is one of the largest hospitals in America and delivers world-class care as the region’s only center for Level l trauma and comprehensive burn care. Tampa General Hospital is the highest-ranked hospital in the market in U.S. News & World Report's 2021-22 Best Hospitals, and one of the top 4 hospitals in Florida, with five specialties ranking among the best programs in the United States. The academic medical center’s commitment to growing and developing its team members is recognized by two prestigious 2021 Forbes magazine rankings – America’s Best Employers by State, third out of 100 Florida companies and first among health care and social organizations and 13^th nationally in America’s Best Employers for Women. Tampa General is the safety net hospital for the region, caring for everyone regardless of their ability to pay, and in fiscal 2020 provided a net community benefit worth more than $182.5 million in the form of health care for underinsured patients, community education, and financial support to community health organizations in Tampa Bay. It is one of the nation’s busiest adult solid organ transplant centers and is the primary teaching hospital for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. With five medical helicopters, Tampa General Hospital transports critically injured or ill patients from 23 surrounding counties to receive the advanced care they need. Tampa General houses a nationally accredited comprehensive stroke center, and its 32-bed Neuroscience, Intensive Care Unit is the largest on the West Coast of Florida. It also is home to the Jennifer Leigh Muma 82-bed Level IV neonatal intensive care unit and a nationally accredited rehabilitation center. Tampa General Hospital’s footprint includes 17 Tampa General Medical Group Primary Care offices, TGH Family Care Center Kennedy, TGH Brandon Healthplex, TGH Virtual Health, and 19 outpatient Radiology Centers. Tampa Bay residents also receive world-class care from the TGH Urgent Care powered by Fast Track network of clinics, and they can even receive home visits in select areas through TGH Urgent Care at Home, powered by Fast Track.  As one of the largest hospitals in the country, Tampa General Hospital is the first in Florida to partner with GE Healthcare and open a clinical command center that uses artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to improve and better coordinate patient care at a lower cost.  For more information, go to www.tgh.org.

ABOUT USF HEALTH
USF Health's mission is to envision and implement the future of health. It is the partnership of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Public Health, the Taneja College of Pharmacy, the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences, the Biomedical Sciences Graduate and Postdoctoral Programs, and USF Health’s multispecialty physicians’ group. The University of South Florida is a high-impact global research university dedicated to student success. Over the past 10 years, no other public university in the country has risen faster in U.S. News & World Report’s national university rankings than USF. For more information, visit health.usf.edu.

ABOUT KINDRED BEHAVIORAL HEALTH

Kindred Behavioral Health Services (KBH) helps partner hospitals expand access to quality behavioral health services in local communities nationwide through contract management and joint-venture partnerships. We specialize in compassionate patient care across the behavioral health care continuum, including acute inpatient treatment, partial hospitalization, and intensive outpatient programs. Kindred Behavioral Health offers quality programs specifically designed to address the needs of various patient populations, including adults, adolescents, and seniors. KBH is part of LifePoint Health, a leader in community-based healthcare that serves patients and providers across the healthcare continuum.

ABOUT LIFEPOINT HEALTH

LifePoint Health is a leading healthcare provider that serves patients, clinicians, communities and partner organizations across the healthcare continuum. Driven by a mission of Making Communities Healthier, the company has a growing diversified healthcare delivery network comprised of more than 50,000 dedicated employees, 65 community hospital campuses, 30 rehabilitation and behavioral health hospitals and 170 additional sites of care, including managed acute rehabilitation units, outpatient centers and post-acute care facilities. More information about LifePoint can be found at www.LifePointHealth.net.