New Parkside board discusses problems

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- The new board of Parkside Hospital voted at its first meeting to contest a state emergency order barring the hospital from admitting any inpatients into its Crisis Unit and Detention Unit.

The licensing problem stems from an Oct. 3 emergency order issued by the Health Department. The order bars Parkside from admitting any inpatients into the units because 24 beds in those units aren't licensed for use.

The emergency order is still in effect and Parkside has until Friday to submit more information regarding the beds to the Health Department, officials said.

Department of Mental Health officials say the beds don't need licenses because the units are outpatient services.

"It isn't as though we bootlegged the beds, but they brought them in without asking the most important entity, the Health Department," said Ron Raynolds, chairman of the Tulsa Psychiatric Center board.

Parkside's new board assumed operations after a 24-member board turned over operations of the hospital to the Tulsa Psychiatric Center last week.

In other business at Tuesday's meeting, three new members were appointed to Parkside's new board -- Raynolds, Paula Moore and Ann Watson. Moore and Watson were members of the old Parkside board.

Other members of the new board include John Turner, Bob Farris, Bill Morgan and J.A. LaFortune, all of whom are members of the Tulsa Psychiatric Center board.

The Department of Mental Health board will meet Friday to discuss the fate of the $10 million in contracts currently held by Parkside.

Raynolds said Parkside would have to spend money to save its services. He said that in addition to adding personnel, the hospital will focus on expanding outpatient care to help with the downsizing of Eastern State Hospital in Vinita.