In November 1999, the Ohio State Medical Center united with one of the most respected names of psychiatric care in Ohio – Harding Hospital.

By November 2000, Harding Hospital, 445 E. Dublin-Granville Rd. in Worthington, primarily remained in name only.

“All clinical operations were consolidated centrally to OSU main campus by Nov. 22,” said Timothy Moore, administrative director for OSU and Harding behavioral health care and medicine.

The consolidation has resulted in major changes in the community for the treatment of mental illnesses.

In addition, the closing of Harding Hospital left a hole in the community of Worthington.

Paul Feldman, assistant city manager of Worthington, said, “Harding has been with us a long time. It is an emotional loss for the whole community.”

Moore said the year before the consolidation (1998-1999) both OSU and Harding were operating at a loss, Harding’s being at around $5 million.

He said by winter and spring of 2000 after the OSU/Harding merger, it became evident that OSU/Harding was going to lose more than the $5 million from the previous year.

OSU and Harding agreed five and a half years ago to develop a joint operating agreement to see if they wanted to develop a closer relationship. Although the two entities remained separate until Nov. 1, 1999, both the Harding and OSU boards determined they would merge and OSU would assume ownership.

Harding Hospital accepted a loan from OSU and the equity acquired from the loan made OSU a partner; there was no money exchanged in the merge.

The move was complicated, Moore said, but by November 1999, all Harding employees became OSU employees and Harding-based systems, such as accounts receivable and payroll, were transferred to OSU.

“We then started to make determinations as to where we needed to consolidate operations to avoid duplication,” Moore said.

An example of duplication, he said, was adult care on the Harding campus and at OSU main campus in the neuroscience’s department.

“We consolidated the adult care unit to the main campus,” Moore said. “The unit at Harding dwindled down in a period of 5-6 days and everyone was admitted to OSU that needed to be.”

With the rather quick realization that OSU/Harding together was going to lose more money than each lost as separate facilities the year before, the OSU/Harding board had to make further decisions as to what needed to be consolidated or eliminated.

One of the changes made was the consolidation of emergency psychiatric services. Moore said that emergency psychiatric services are no longer at the Harding campus but they are now intact at OSU main campus.

Moore said that the differences between the Harding facility for emergency psychiatric care and what OSU main campus has is that the models are slightly different.

“Fundamentally the services are the same,” Moore said. “The difference is in the environment. Harding had an actual psychiatric services emergency room. All psychiatric emergencies are now addressed at OSU’s main campus general emergency room.”

In a general emergency room, the assessment of who would receive care first depends on who is the sickest, said Dr. David Bahner, assistant professor of emergency medicine.

Bahner explained that if someone came in with a stab wound to the chest, they would be among the highest priority and be treated immediately. Someone who was threatening to harm himself or herself would be taken to a psychiatric room and evaluated by the staff, and if he or she were suicidal they would be treated by a psychiatrist.

Moore said the combination of psychiatric emergencies in the general emergency room is a good thing because someone who presents both psychiatric and medical problems can be taken care of at the same place.

“There is no situation dealt with at Harding that we can’t deal with here,” Moore said.

However, Laurie Zinn, director of public relations at NetCare Corp., said that NetCare’s two crisis sites located at 199 S. Central Ave. and 741 E. Broad St. are the only crisis sites in Franklin County, leaving no crisis site in northern Franklin County since Harding was shut down.

NetCare is a crisis intervention service that provides 24-hour, face-to-face assistance for Franklin County residents experiencing a mental health or substance abuse crisis. Those in need can walk in anytime to receive help.

The psychiatric emergency room at Harding was staffed with psychiatric nursing personnel, licensed behavioral health professionals, psychologists, psychiatrists and psychiatric care technicians.

Harding, however, did not have a physician on-site after 5 p.m. and on weekends, Moore said.

“The neuroscience’s building has nursing personnel, intake clinician staff, intake area and a physician psychiatric resident on-site at all times,” he said.

Dr. Craig T. Pratt, medical director of NetCare, Corp., said in The Columbus Dispatch Nov. 25 that the Harding shutdown is “a stroke in a system that is already considerably brain-damaged.”

Zinn, who commented on the quote for Dr. Pratt, said what he meant was that it was disappointment that Harding closed and NetCare will continue to support OSU and continue to offer crisis services to the clientelle that they served.

Another area that was drastically changed was the eating disorder clinic.

Moore said although some felt it was eliminated, they eliminated only one component, comprehensive services.

“We have a partial hospital here on the main campus that offers individual care,” Moore said.

Moore expressed the fact that the OSU Medical Center was losing about a quarter of a million dollars per year in the eating disorder clinic and that they could not continue to carry comprehensive services.

Dr. Laura Hill, former director of Harding Eating Disorder Clinic, said that when the Harding/OSU board decided to pull the comprehensive program and shift all other individual treatment cases to OSU main campus, she and her staff were given a couple of weeks notice that the clinic was going to be closed.

“As programs at Harding were shifted, there was a phase-out process and our program was closed,” Hill said.

Hill is reopening the eating disorder clinic Feb. 1. She will be able to independently open it through a number of seed grants awarded to her.

The organizations that are helping to fund Hill’s program include the Columbus Medical Association Foundation, the Ohio Department of Mental Health and the Ohio Department of Health.

Hill said once her facility, the Center for Eating Disorders and Psychotherapy, becomes state-certified to be accredited, which takes about 9 months to a year, they could work on developing day treatment seven hours per day.

“OSU does have a general day hospital program but it is not for eating disorders,” she said.

Moore said Harding employees were given a 30-day notice that everything was being consolidated to OSU main campus.

OSU Human Resources tried to place all employees of Harding in some position at the main campus. He said if there were vacancies, they placed employees in the same position they had at Harding.

In many cases though, employees were offered other positions or they elected not to transfer to OSU main campus and looked for work elsewhere.

“For some people, however, we simply didn’t have placement,” Moore said. “They tried to help these employees find work elsewhere.”