A Catholic health care organization's desire to build an 144-bed psychiatric hospital in Woodbury is drawing opposition from other east-metro hospitals, including the company that owns Woodwinds Hospital in Woodbury.

Allowing Prairie St. John's to open such a hospital would hurt mental health care in Minnesota for the elderly, disabled and poor, and invite competition for a small number of available psychiatrists and chemical dependency counselors, the chief executive officer of St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul said in a letter to state health officials.

"The creation of more beds is not a solution but rather a bigger Band-Aid on a serious problem facing members of our community," said Sara Criger, who wrote the Jan. 8 letter on behalf of HealthEast Care System. Woodwinds Hospital is a collaboration between HealthEast and Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota.

But Alan Chapman, chief executive officer of Prairie St. John's, said Monday that his firm wants to improve psychiatric care in Minnesota, not harm it. "I find it hard to believe that they would see this as competition," he said. "There is a tremendous need for more beds and more services."

The proposed hospital also would include services for chemical dependency. Prairie St. John's, which has administrative offices in Fargo, N.D., opened outpatient clinics in Woodbury and Minnetonka in 2005 and owns a psychiatric hospital in Fargo.

The proposed Woodbury hospital would be built a block from Woodwinds and would include 96 beds in a first phase and 48 more after five years. Half of those 144 would be for children and adolescents. Prairie St. John's first must secure a legislative exemption from a 1984 state moratorium on new hospital beds.

Sen. Kathy Saltzman, DFL-Woodbury, said Monday that Prairie St. John's had asked her to sponsor a bill seeking that exemption. However, Saltzman said she wants to hear what the Health Department recommends before doing so.

The Health Department's review includes a public meeting tonight in Woodbury.

In her letter, Criger raised several objections to the Prairie St. John's proposal. A psychiatric hospital of that size would overwhelm the 86-bed Woodwinds Hospital with emergency cases and because Woodbury lacks suitable transit, the hospital would not be accessible to low-income patients. In addition, competition from such a hospital would further contribute to a "severe staffing shortage" of mental health professionals, she said.

"As a result, existing programs, like ours, that serve a higher percentage of elderly, disabled (Medicare) and poor (enrolled in Minnesota government health care programs) will not be able to operate at current levels," she wrote.

Attracting psychiatrists to work in Minnesota is difficult because reimbursements for many of their patients are low, said Joe Clubb, director of behavioral health at St. Joseph's Hospital. He said Monday that HealthEast hospitals have to make up the difference between what insurers pay and what psychiatrists want to earn.

St. Joseph's is the HealthEast hospital with in-patient psychiatric beds. (The system includes St. John Hospital in Maplewood and Bethesda Hospital.) Clubb said the metro area already has 995 psychiatric beds for adults but can't fill them all because of a shortage of psychiatrists.

Chapman took exception to allegations that Prairie St. John's would pilfer psychiatrists from other hospitals. "We've made it quite clear to them that we're not doing that," Chapman said.

Prairie St. John's has no trouble recruiting qualified mental health professionals, he said. Chapman also said his firm met with Woodwinds officials to discuss sharing services such as lab work. He said he didn't hear them voice opposition.

But Clubb said East Metro Collaborative, a group of health care providers from Ramsey, Washington and Dakota counties that formed in June, recommends more outpatient psychiatric services at existing hospitals, not more beds.

"We think there are better solutions to what Prairie St. John's is proposing," said Tom Schmitt, operations director at Woodwinds Hospital.

Kevin Giles • 651-298-1554