Merger Promises Boost In Mental Health Care Hospitals’ Joint Venture Gives North Idaho More Psychiatric Services

A merger between Kootenai Medical Center and the Inland Behavioral Health Institute will mean expanded psychiatric services for North Idaho residents, officials said Thursday.

KMC bought out the institute, formerly Pine Crest Hospital, for $557,000, to create a jointly owned $3.8 million company.

The new company, North Idaho Behavioral Health, will be owned 50 percent by KMC and 50 percent by IBHI’s two owners, Jack Yuditsky and Mike Cancelosi. A four-person board of directors will oversee the new company, which is KMC’s sixth joint venture. Most recently, KMC joined with Sacred Heart to construct a new dialysis facility.

KMC chief executive Joe Morris said KMC began discussions with Yuditsky and Cancelosi several months ago.

“We asked ourselves, ‘Does it make sense for us to go on operating completely different programs or would the community be better off if we were to merge psychiatric services?”’ Morris said.

The two facilities contracted an independent accounting firm to assign a dollar value to both programs. KMC has only 30 beds in its Kootenai Psychiatric and Counseling Center, while IBHI operates 60 beds. Because it is smaller and generates less revenue, KMC paid the value difference of $557,000 for the merger.

The new company will help serve areas of North Idaho that were significantly underserved before, Morris said, such as Medicaid patients seeking child and adolescent services.

“Now they will all be able to be taken care of in our new operation,” he said.

Albert Gale will serve as the organization’s chief operating officer. The merger will not mean any layoffs, Morris said. In fact, the new center is likely to grow as chemical dependency and adolescent programs expand.

“We’ve both had our own niches, and we will be able to take a more comprehensive approach now that we are one organization rather than two.”

, DataTimes