Design process underway for Fulton State Hospital expansion

Missouri Mental Health Commission Thursday learned of new updates as the renovations to the Fulton State Hospital could begin soon.

Mark Stringer, the Director of Behavioral and Mental Health, said there are three patient facilities in the hospital.

Those facilities include maximum, intermediate and minimum security.

The goal is to add hundreds of new beds to the maximum security facility to allow for more patients.

Right now, the maximum security section of the hospital has about one hundred and eighty beds.

They want there to be 500 beds total.

As of now, there simply is not enough room.

However, Stringer said he doesn’t want to add too many beds too soon.

“We don’t want to create beds that won’t be used. With the advances in pyschiatric care that we’ve seen in recent years and we’ll see in the future we expect to be able to move people through the system faster,” said Stringer.

The layout of the new hospital mimics a prison.

Stringer explained why the future facility has that layout.

“The only thing we would have in common with a prison is the high priority we place on security.”

Stringer said the Fulton State Hospital is nationally accredited hospital and meets all hospital standards.

As of right now, they are still working with design teams.

Stringer said in the future they will begin working with contractors.