Psych hospital problems; Planners criticize smaller numbers.

• Position: NEWS

Byline: Lee Hammel

WORCESTER - The Patrick administration will re-evaluate whether the state psychiatric hospital to be built in Worcester needs to remain within the $278 million cost cap, Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray said late last week.

To stay within that amount, the state Division of Capital Asset Management came up with a building with a capacity of 294 patients in 395,000 square feet. A special commission spent 15 months before recommending in April 2006 that a 320-bed, 496,000-square-foot state hospital be built to replace the aging facilities in Worcester and Westboro.

Central Massachusetts legislators who served on the commission expressed unhappiness after the Telegram & Gazette reported that the design reduced the size and capacity of the hospital, and asked for a meeting. Barbara Leadholm, state commissioner of mental health, said last week the design has to take into account the available state resources.

Before she became commissioner in August, the design had been reduced to 425,000 square feet, while capacity remained at 260 adults and 60 adolescents before the Legislature approved a bond issue for construction last year. More recently, when the size of the structure was cut by another 30,000 square feet, Ms. Leadholm determined it would accommodate fewer adults, 234, and 60 adolescents.

"We obviously have a fiduciary obligation to use money prudently, make sure we're spending it wisely," Mr. Murray said in an interview Friday. "But we also have a responsibility that whatever's built is something that will serve the adults and adolescents, staff and families that are going to be utilizing the facility and working there for the next 100 years.

"Before any final decisions are going to be made, the administration is going to look at the original program and design, and fully understand what it would cost and whether it would stay within the initial budget of $278 million. If it cannot stick to that, the administration wants to know what factors are driving it above the target figure."

Mr. Murray pointed out that the new psychiatric hospital is a "consolidation of Westboro and Worcester, so there's efficiencies and cost savings there. This facility we want to make sure is done right and well."

Mr. Murray, a former Worcester mayor, said, "It may be that we need to spend additional money, but we're not going to get to that point until we do this analysis."

That analysis, he said, will probably start by looking at the...