– Burgum Tours St. Hospital Specialized Care & Service

Jamestown (CSi) Gov Doug Burgum toured the ND State Hospital on Thursday.

He viewed the campus and the specialized care and rehabilitative services the hospital provides to people with severe and persistent mental illnesses and substance use disorders who typically cannot be served elsewhere.

The hour-long tour included a visit to three patient care buildings where team members provide inpatient and residential specialized rehabilitative services to patients. The tour concluded with a drive around the entire campus.

Burgum said, “Team members at the North Dakota State Hospital are doing heroic work under challenging conditions. For the quality of the care and the safety of the staff, we need to continue exploring ways to replace the hospital and consolidate operations into modern facilities.Opportunities also may exist to repurpose newer existing buildings on the campus to improve efficiencies and lower costs for both the Department of Human Services and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.”

Recently, the interim Acute Psychiatric Treatment Committee approved a legislative interim report that recognized the importance of the State Hospital and its specialized care services. The report’s recommendations include building a new state hospital that focuses on delivering intensive specialty services including forensic, court-ordered treatment and complex treatment services for patients who cannot be cared for in other facilities due to their intensity of need.

North Dakota State Hospital Administrator Tonya Perkins said. “We are so grateful for the governor’s visit to see the remarkable work our team is doing to help North Dakotans,” North Dakota State Hospital Administrator Tonya Perkins said. “We appreciated the opportunity to not only highlight our work, but also identify the efficiencies and improved care we could offer with a new, modern treatment campus.”