Psych hospital opens in Las Vegas

Appeal Capitol Bureau

The state's new 22-bed psychiatric hospital opened its doors in Las Vegas on Monday.

The inpatient hospital is designed to relieve overcrowding at Clark County emergency rooms. It is located on the Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services campus on west Charleston and is staffed 24-hours a day by a staff of 43.

"We had promised this facility would come on line in February," said Health and Human Services Director Mike Willden.

He said the added 22 beds brings the total number of beds in Clark County to 238. The rest of the beds are at the Rawson-Neal complex which opened its 216 beds in August 2007.

Mike Torvinen of HHS said it will cost $3.24 million to operate the 22-bed center this year and $4.03 million next year.