County and Summit Behavioral report initial operations, rising referrals at Crisis Triage Center

The Doa0a Ana County Crisis Triage Center opened Jan. 1 and is operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week to provide immediate assessment, stabilization and care coordination for adults in mental-health or substance-use crisis, county and contractor leaders told the Board of County Commissioners on March 11.

Jamie Michael, director of the county's Health and Human Services Department, introduced Summit Behavioral Healthcare staff and said the county contracts with Summit to run the center. Sandy Emmanuel, Summit's market chief executive, and Tom Ismond, the center's executive director, described operations and early performance.

Summit's leaders said the facility follows a "no wrong door" policy and that staff include nurses, mental-health clinicians, certified peer support specialists and a discharge planner. Emmanuel said Summit had already received a Medicaid provider number and was working on managed-care contracts while awaiting Joint Commission and Health Care Authority surveys. "We submitted the application on January 4 right out of the gate, and we have received that number," Emmanuel said.

Tom Ismond, the center's executive director, gave the board a snapshot of use and referral sources. "We have served 61 residents in our community year to date," he said in his prepared remarks; he later added the center received 69 admissions in January and 75 in February and that weekly volume is trending upward. Ismond said most referrals come from law enforcement and community mental-health agencies, with a smaller share from emergency departments and the county detention center.

During the question-and-answer period, Ismond provided a breakdown of law-enforcement referrals: "...the percentage is at 38 percent," he said, and he estimated that most of those law-enforcement referrals came from Las Cruces Police Department, with a smaller share from the county sheriff's office. He told Vice Chair Susana Chaparro the center planned additional outreach to agencies in the county's southern communities.

Ismond also said a small portion of guests return for repeat admissions; "There are...12 in that group" of repeat visitors, which the center follows more intensively with community partners to reduce readmission. Commissioners praised the center's discharge planning and partner coordination; Commissioner Arnold said a strong discharge plan is "significant to the success" of the effort.

Presenters said the center has initiated a guest satisfaction survey with an 87% return rate and a 4.98 out of 5 average score on overall satisfaction. Emmanuel said the center is pursuing joint-commission accreditation and that a survey was expected after March 31. "We will be back each quarter to provide an update," Jamie Michael told the board.

Why this matters: County leaders and Summit staff said the center is intended to offer an alternative to emergency departments and jail for people in behavioral-health crisis, improve continuity of care by coordinating with community providers, and reduce pressure on first responders.

What's next: Summit and county staff said they will continue outreach to law enforcement and community partners, complete required surveys and pursue managed-care contracting. Commissioners asked for ongoing quarterly reports and more detail on geographic patterns of referrals and outcomes.