Governor was joined today by new COO Andy Atkinson in touring construction of new mental hospital; $211 million project is scheduled for completion in 2018
Gov. Jay Nixon today toured ongoing construction of the new Fulton State Mental Hospital with Andy Atkinson, who the Governor announced would be the hospital’s new Chief Operating Officer. Atkinson, a 10-year veteran at Fulton, replaces retired COO Marty Martin-Forman as leader of Missouri’s largest mental hospital, which is the site of the state’s only maximum-security psychiatric facility.
Originally built in 1851, Fulton State Hospital is the oldest state psychiatric hospital west of the Mississippi River. In 2014, the General Assembly backed Gov. Nixon’s plan for replacing the outdated and deteriorating maximum-security psychiatric facility with a new state-of-the-art mental hospital that will be safer and more conducive to modern treatment.Construction is scheduled to be completed in 2018.
“Andy has been an integral part of the DMH team for more than a decade, and his experience and leadership will serve Fulton State Hospital well as it embarks on a historic new chapter,” Gov. Nixon said. “The dedicated men and women at Fulton State Hospital do incredibly important and difficult work, and I greatly appreciate their continued service alongside Andy and his team.”
Atkinson has been at Fulton State Hospital for 10 years and was the facility’s Hospital Operations Specialist before becoming Chief Operating Officer. He is a registered nurse with masters’ degrees in health management and health information Management. Prior to working for the Missouri Department of Mental Health Atkinson managed inpatient psychiatric units in Missouri and South Carolina.
This summer, Gov. Nixon toured the completed new Energy Control Center (ECC) and Services Building at Fulton. Several other portions of the hospital project have been completed on time and on budget, including the demolition and abatement of several buildings within the west phase, completed earlier this year. In addition, new boilers have been installed at the Department of Elementary & Secondary Education’s School for the Deaf and the Department of Correction’s Cremer Building (previously serviced by the Fulton State Hospital boiler) after construction of the Guhleman and Hearnes Boiler Plant was completed in June 2016.
The last building to be demolished will be the maximum security Biggs Forensic Center after the patients have moved into the new facility. The Biggs and Guhleman Forensic Centers on the Fulton campus treat patients with serious mental illness who are committed by Missouri courts for evaluation and treatment related to a crime, or who have seriously assaulted patients or staff in our other state psychiatric hospitals. Biggs is the state’s only maximum security psychiatric facility. Since 2007, the facility has taken in more than 1,000 admissions from 99 Missouri counties and the City of St. Louis.
For the latest information on the Fulton State Mental Hospital construction, visit https://fultonrebuild.mo.gov/.