New Britain’s Hospital for Special Care on Thursday unveiled its new $13-million inpatient unit for children and teens with an autism spectrum disorder who are in acute behavioral crisis.
Construction on the 18,000-square-foot facility, formally called the Autism Center at Hospital for Special Care, kicked off 11 months ago. The new unit, which features private rooms and enough space for dedicated staff areas and family visits, will enable HFSC to increase its inpatient capacity to 12 beds.
That’s two more than the 10 housed in the hospital’s existing 4,500-square-foot autism unit,  which first opened in 2015. HFSC will add about 15 new employees to help run and support the new autism center.
The project is backed by $10 million in state assistance approved by the Bond Commission in 2018 and treats for aggression, self-injury or severely impaired functioning.
The timing of the grand opening, which is six weeks ahead of schedule, could perhaps not be better.
Dedicated inpatient facilities for children with an autism spectrum disorder are relatively rare.Â
The program at HFSC, a hospital where nearly 75% of overall patients served are on Medicaid, is one of only about a dozen nationwide, and as such, the unit has been consistently at capacity, with demand coming from families in multiple states, HFSC CEO Lynn Ricci said in an interview this week.
“The unit is always full, and frankly, the waiting list is not as long as you would think, but there is a reason for that and it’s that the kids can’t wait,” Ricci said. “If they can’t come to us, they may end up in the emergency room, or worse, struggling at home.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the stress for those families, particularly those whose children have more severe forms of the disorder.
“I think every parent has been challenged by the loss of structure,” Ricci said. “We have seen more need for emergent services.”
Easing of telemedicine reimbursement rules during the pandemic has helped offset some of that, allowing clinicians to work with more patients remotely, she added.
Part of the newly built square footage will house a partial-hospitalization program at HFSC.
Scheduled to launch in January, that program will be for youths who need structure and support during the day, but are able to go home at night, said Dr. Hassan Minhas, medical director of outpatient services at the autism center.
“Patients who are stable to be discharged from inpatient, but not yet stable enough to be seen intermittently as outpatients, will attend our [partial-hospitalization program], where they will receive a similar level of service that they did at the hospital, but would go home at night to be with their family,” Minhas said.
 “This is designed to not only provide a continuum of support to children and families in need, but also to reduce the reliance on hospitalization and emergency rooms,” he continued.
