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Crossing Rivers gets $600,000 mental health grant as new hospital nears

La Crosse Tribune (WI) - 5/21/2015

May 21--PRAIRIE DU CHIEN -- Crossing Rivers Health has received a $600,000, three-year federal grant to establish and expand telehealth services at its new medical center, which is nearing completion in Prairie du Chien.

The telehealth options will be involved in mental and behavioral health services in particular, after a 2012 community health needs assessment placed them among the top three priorities, said Crossing Rivers CEO Bill Sexton.

The grant from the Health Resources and Service Administration's Federal Office of Rural Health Policy was obtained in collaboration with Crawford County Human Services, Richland County Health and Human Services and the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative.

It will help fund a project called Mental Health Through TeleHealth, which will include psychologists and psychiatrists providing treatment and psychotherapy via interactive video.

Besides the medical center, the project will feature telehealth sites at Crawford County Human Services, Richland County Health and Human Services, Crossing Rivers Health Clinic-Prairie du Chien and Crossing Rivers Health Clinic-Fennimore.

When the system is up and running, it will increase the number of people who can access mental health services, reduce wait time between appointments, boost the caseload capacity of agencies involved and decrease the need for travel and associated costs for patients and providers, said Dr. Steven Bush, Crossing Rivers' chief medical officer.

Crawford County Human Services Director Dan McWilliams lauded the move, saying, "As a public agency, it has become more difficult each year for human services to provide quality mental health services in rural areas because of reductions in funding and resources.

"This effort has the potential to enhance services that are critical to residents of our county for the foreseeable future," McWilliams said.

Formerly Prairie du Chien Memorial Hospital, Crossing Rivers was rebranded in June as work progressed on the new building just off Hwy. 18 across from the municipal airport.

The new facility, scheduled to begin accepting patients in mid-June, will replace a landlocked, outdated hospital that had been renovated 11 times since it was built more than five decades ago. A grand opening is scheduled for June 6.

The $37 million building, a 25-bed, 137,000-square-foot structure, is part of a $50 million project including land, amenities and equipment, as well as a clinic that opened on the site in July.

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(c)2015 the La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, Wis.)

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