While the Bowen Center serves 10 counties in northeast Indiana, the behavioral healthcare company has just one inpatient facility.
About 1,000 people a year stay at the facility for three days or so, according to Ron Clark, senior vice president of rehabilitation and recovery services.
Currently located in Warsaw, the inpatient facility is limited to space for 16 people because of an agreement with Medicare in 1995. That space has been reduced because part of it has been leased to another group who now wishes for more room.
“In the current building, downstairs, we’re leasing out space to a Mishawaka-based company that offers autism services,” Clark said, “and they’d like the entire floor.”
The inpatient facility must also be within 35 miles of a person’s home if Medicare or Medicaid is billed. Pierceton’s Matchette Industrial Park was found to be a good solution to the driving distance problem.
“We found several places in Fort Wayne, but they were expensive,” Clark said. “When we looked around here, Pierceton had that tract of ground open. This should be quicker and easier for everyone. We’re really pleased to find the plot of ground in Pierceton.”
The seven-acre lot is the third one on Pequignot Drive’s north side, off Ind. 13. The property was rezoned commercial from light industrial at the May 12 Pierceton Town Council meeting, allowing inpatient facility use.
Plans call for a long one-story building with room for an addition in case regulations on the number of occupants allows an increase in the future.
Most admissions are from Warsaw, Plymouth and Wabash with referrals from other Bowen Center locations. The Pierceton location also is closer for potential Fort Wayne and DeKalb County clients.
This facility will have a large kitchen, which the Warsaw inpatient area does not have because food is prepared by and purchased from the Kosciusko Community Hospital kitchen.
Clark said the current inpatient staff will move to the Pierceton location when the building is complete, sometime in the fall of 2016.
During Monday’s groundbreaking ceremonies, Gerry Bollman of Project Design and Management Inc. said the engineering and architectural documents are nearly complete and bids will be requested in a couple of weeks.
(Story By The Times Union)
