ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – A local behavioral health hospital will soon have more beds for patients.
The state behavioral health department is spending about $4 million to add 28 beds to Catawba Hospital in Roanoke County.
They'll be added between now and June 30, 2020.
The department says admissions at state hospitals has increased more than 330 percent since 2014.
That's when a law went into effect requiring anyone with a temporary detention order to be admitted if there's no room at a private hospital.
"The reason that we chose Catawba is because (there are) two floors at the Catawba Hospital that have not been operational. The beds there have not been funded, but it was relatively easy to convert those," said Daniel Herr, the behavioral health department's deputy commissioner of facility services.
Another 28 beds will be added in the upcoming fiscal year if the department can get enough money from the state.