By MEGAN HART

One year after Osawatomie State Hospital temporarily stopped admitting patients for the first time in its history, the number of people waiting for mental health treatment is up.

And an increasing number of them are waiting in hospital emergency rooms.  Osawatomie State Hospital — one of two state-run inpatient facilities for adults with severe mental health issues — halted admissions in late June 2015 after it reduced its capacity from 206 to 146 so that it could complete renovations ordered by federal officials.

The hospital is now admitting new patients but only when its population falls below 146.

The reduction in usable beds has resulted in longer wait times for patients who need the intensive inpatient treatment. Federal officials ordered the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services to renovate areas of Osawatomie State Hospital because of concerns about patient safety.

The hospital closed a 60-bed unit in April 2015 to start renovations, but it has yet to reopen. In December, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services cut federal payments to the hospital — about $1 million a month — after finding additional safety concerns.

KDADS has focused on meeting requirements to receive those payments again.

Waiting up to four days

The longer wait times have forced an increasing number of Kansans to seek mental health treatment in hospital emergency rooms. Officials at Wichita-based Via Christi Health say the demand for mental health services has climbed steadily since last year.

“We have, I think, consistently seen a rise recently,” said Chris West, the administrator for Via Christi’s behaviorial health programs.

“We did see it last year, but not at the level we’re seeing it this year.” Increasing wait times for beds at Osawatomie is one of the reasons for the spike in ER visits, West said, noting that some Via Christi paitients have had to wait more than four days. Cindy Samuelson, spokeswoman for the Kansas Hospital Association, said wait times for beds at Osawatomie are an increasing concern among the association’s members. Representatives on its behavioral health task force have reported patient waits ranging from 20 hours to 96 hours, she said. West said four people were waiting in Via Christi’s emergency room for admission to Osawatomie as of Thursday morning, including one person who had been waiting for three days.

Statewide, 18 people were waiting for treatment at Osawatomie State Hospital as of Thursday morning, said Angela de Rocha, KDADS spokeswoman. Five of them were in a correctional facility or had failed to comply with court-ordered outpatient treatment, she said. John Worley, superintendent of Osawatomie State Hospital, said fewer than 10 people were waiting for beds statewide for most of the period between July 1 and Nov. 10, 2015, though the waiting list did hit 14 a few times. Since Nov. 11, 2015, the waiting list typically has been in the double digits, and it isn’t clear why, Worley said.

It hit a high of 27 on June 15 but has fallen to as low as three at times, he said. “Having 18 on the list would be a bit high against the averages, but not unusually so,” he said in an email.

Growing demand for services

It isn’t just the state hospitals that are running out of room. West said Via Christi’s behavioral health center, which has 60 beds for adults, can take patients waiting for admission to Osawatomie. But he said its beds also often have been full in recent months. Part of the issue, West said, is that an increasing number of the people seeking treatment for behavioral health problems at Via Christi have had more significant needs. “That higher level of treatment often takes longer,” he said. “Oftentimes they do these extended boarding times in the ED (emergency department).” Via Christi has five beds in a designated psychiatric assessment center in its emergency department, West said, but sometimes patients in mental health crisis have to be placed in other safe rooms when those five are full. Via Christi’s emergency department has nurses trained to work with psychiatric patients, along with a clinical social worker and a “protection worker” whose job is to calm patients. Even so, he said, it’s not an ideal treatment setting for people with behavioral health needs.  “It’s not the right level of care to have these people waiting (for a state hospital bed),” he said. Susan Burchill, spokeswoman for Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, said Wesley hasn’t seen an increase in the number of people waiting in its emergency department for a space at Osawatomie State Hospital. However, she said, it is a challenge for physicians to find private or public facilities that have space for inpatient psychiatric patients. That has increased wait times for inpatient psychiatric care, Burchill said. –

RENO COUNTY – Two people were injured in an accident just before 9p.m. on Sunday in Reno County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Harley Davidson motorcycle driven by Don W. Butler, 56, Burrton, was eastbound on U.S. 50 four miles east of Hutchinson.

The motorcycle hit a deer in the roadway and slid on its side into the south ditch.

Butler and a passenger William W. Lytle, 4, Burrton, were transported to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center.

Both were wearing helmets, according to the KHP.

PRATT, Kan. (AP) — A south-central Kansas sheriff says a man who fell 120 feet while working on a wind turbine is expected to survive.

Pratt County Sheriff Vernon Chinn says the worker was seriously injured during the tumble onto muddy terrain Sunday morning while he was repairing a blade on a wind generator near Pratt. Chinn says emergency responders found the man coherent, able to talk and “doing amazingly well for the fall he just had.”

Another worker was found hanging from his safety harness 120 feet in the air and eventually was lowered to safety in a construction basket.

General Electric says it is investigating the accident.

The workers’ names were not released.

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PRATT COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities in Pratt County are investigating a Sunday morning accident.

Just before 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, the Pratt County Sheriff’s Office, Pratt County Emergency Services, and Pratt County Rescue were called to a construction site approximately 6 miles south and 4 miles east of Pratt, to the scene of a construction worker who had fallen while doing repairs on a wind generator, according to a media release.

Pratt County Sheriff’s Office was told the worker had fallen approximately 126 feet and had landed on his back in the mud. The worker was conscious and talking with rescue personnel.

Another worker was trapped for a brief period of time, hanging from his safety harness at approximately the same height. After several minutes the second worker was able to free and lower himself into the construction basket and then on down to the ground.

The injured worker was transported from the scene to a hospital in Wichita.

The men were repairing one of the blades on the wind generator and were employed by General Electric, according to the sheriff’s office.

The names of the employees were not released.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A 40-year-old woman has been sentenced to about 25 years in prison for killing a Lawrence woman in 2014.

Angelica Kulp pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder and aggravated burglary in the stabbing death of 56-year-old Christine Kaplan. Kulp was sentenced Friday in Douglas County court.

Kaplan, who was known to take in people in need of help, allowed Kulp to stay in her home. She later asked Kulp to leave because Kulp was running up the water bill and was being disrespectful.

The Lawrence Journal World reports (https://j.mp/29bobVW) that before she was sentenced, Kulp addressed Kaplan’s family and apologized.

Prosecutors say when she’s released from prison Kulp will have to register as a violent offender for 15 years.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Bookstores serving students at the two largest universities in Kansas are closing, largely because of dwindling textbook sales.

The Levin family owns the Jayhawk Bookstore in Lawrence near the University of Kansas and Varney’s Book Store in Manhattan, where Kansas State is located. The family has announced the closure of both bookstores.

Jeff Levin says Jayhawk Bookstore’s “bread and butter” was textbooks. He says the owners had predicted a significant loss for January, but it was even deeper than anticipated. He cites a rise in online open-access material and more students ordering books online.

And he says if people aren’t coming in the door to buy books, they don’t buy many supplies either.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports the Jayhawk Bookstore closed last week. Varney’s closed last month.

WICHITA, KAN. – A former bookkeeper pleaded guilty Friday to embezzling $247,000 from a Wichita steel company where she worked, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.

Cynthia K. Griffith, 58, Wichita, pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud. In her plea, she admitted she stole the money from Griffith Steel Erection of Wichita where she worked. She wrote unauthorized checks on the company’s operating account.

Sentencing is set for Sept. 21. She faces a penalty of up to 30 years in federal prison and a fine up to $1 million. Beall commended the Wichita Police Department and Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Smith for their work on the case.