GENEVA - Following a decision at the April County Board meeting, Fillmore Supervisors along with the Fillmore County Hospital closed the doors to their 10-bed inpatient behavioral health unit on June 30th.

The Unit served primarily geriatric patients with psychiatric needs, often combined with dementia symptoms and diagnoses, a press release states. It has served patients in Nebraska since opening July 1, 2015. By June 30, it will have served over 900 patients from 83 counties in Nebraska and in three surrounding states.

The closing was announced following an evaluation and recommendation made by Fillmore County Hospital CEO Chris Nicholas and his administrative team. This evaluation involved a financial analysis by internal as well as external entities, future forecasting, and a thorough cost/benefit analysis. The lingering effects of COVID played a major role, Nichols noted. Erratic referral patterns, difficulty discharges, staffing difficulty, and inflated costs including supplies, equipment, contracts, and wages were all heavy factors that changed significantly since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.

The Unit became a statewide resource for inpatient geriatric psych needs, but less than 10 percent of the patients served were from Fillmore County and the immediate service area, according to the press release. The opening of Columbus Community Hospital’s 10-bed inpatient psych unit last summer will help fill the void, as will existing inpatient psychiatric beds in Fremont, Lincoln, Omaha, Hastings and North Platte.

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