COOS BAY — Bay Area Hospital is looking to streamline its mental health services by forging a partnership with Coos County Mental Health. The goal is to save money.

Bay Area Hospital is committed to maintaining both an in-patient and outpatient mental health unit, said CEO Paul Janke.

That’s not going to be easy.

The hospital lost more than $1 million last year on mental health services. Patients aren’t able to pay, or receive the service through a government program that doesn’t provide enough reimbursements to cover the hospital’s costs. And commercial insurance providers don’t pay as much as they do for other medical services, Janke said.

The county’s mental health department has played a role in the hospital before, but there’s never been a formal plan between the two agencies, said Ginger Swan, the public health department director. Now, they’d like to work out a deal.

County case workers respond to calls at the hospital if someone with a mental health problem arrives in the emergency room. The county often deals with those patients and can help determine the best course of treatment, Swan said. But, by the time a patient leaves the ER, she might have been seen by three medical professionals, when one might have sufficed.

While only the hospital has an in-patient unit, both Bay Area and the county agency provide crisis intervention and assessment services, Janke said. The goal would be to make sure they aren’t duplicating services, Swan said.

“We have a small community,” she said. “The more you can partner, the better you can serve your clients.”

The hospital already has created ties with the South Coast Psychiatric Clinic and Dr. James Martin, a psychiatrist who practiced privately until 2008, when he became a hospital employee. He sees outpatient clients at his office just down the hill from the hospital, while a colleague works both at his office and in the hospital’s in-patient ward.

The in-patient unit is particularly important since the next closest facility is in Eugene, Martin said. Although the 10-bed unit mainly serves patients for short stays, it also can double as a pseudo-chronic care facility when space isn’t available at state facilities, Martin said.

“It’s a critical and very, very important resource for the South Coast,” he said.

Psychiatrists are equally in demand.

In a perfect world, there would be enough private practices in the area to treat mental health patients, Janke said. But since there aren’t, the hospital has stepped in to fill the void.

It’s already looking for savings by trying to hire a psychiatric nurse practitioner, who is expected to arrive in January, Martin said. She won’t be able to perform all the duties of a psychiatrist, but she’ll be able to prescribe most medications and provide psychotherapy.

Her salary will cost about half as much as a psychiatrist.

The hospital will never make money from the mental health unit, but it can try to reduce its losses, Janke said.

“It’s something that is needed, but we need to do it in a way as cost-effective as we can,” he said.

Janke said he’d like to have the new partnership established by some time in January, though until then he won’t know how it will affect personnel levels. Swan said the new deal will likely cost her department a little more money, but she said it’s worth it.

“To help keep that mental health unit, we think that is a good decision for the community in general,” she said.