Clear View Behavioral Health sold to new mental-health group

This story was updated on Dec. 10.

JOHNSTOWN — A new group of behavioral-health hospitals and clinics has purchased the Clear View Behavioral Center in Johnstown, hoping to start a new mental-health operation after state officials twice attempted to shut the facility down for allegedly severe failures to protect its patients.

Franklin, Tennessee-based Summit Behavioral Healthcare LLC purchased the hospital at 4770 Larimer Parkway for $29.25 million in a deal that closed Dec. 1, according to Larimer County real estate records.

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The 92-bed facility has been empty since September, when Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment officials shut it down after an inspector found that workers had failed to implement controls to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

But state health officials first moved to revoke the hospital’s operating license last August after finding 85 violations alleging systemic failures in caring for patients.

Among the worst allegations were failing to keep suicidal patients from harming themselves, not stopping visitors from bringing heroin and other drugs to patients, admitting patients with severe physical health issues who later died, and releasing a patient who sexually assaulted a sibling back to their family against both the patient’s and family’s wishes.

CDPHE and Clear View settled those charges in February, but individual patients have sued Clear View for alleged violations of their patient rights.

BizWest attempted to reach Strategic Behavioral Health for comment, but was unable to leave a voicemail on the company’s listed phone number.

Daniel Krasner, a spokesman for Summit, told BizWest that the group intends to apply for a new operating license with the state and open in either the late first quarter of 2021 or in the early second quarter depending on COVID-19 restrictions.

Summit may consider re-hiring nurses and mental-health technicians that worked under Clear View leadership and are deemed to not have been complicit in previous violations, but will not rehire managers or others implicated by the state investigations.

“We don’t want patients to have a less than positive experience and we need true professionals to facilitate our patients’ care,” he said.

CDPHE spokesman Peter Myers said the state has fully revoked Clear View’s hospital license from Strategic Behavioral Health, the Nashville-based group that owned and operated the center.

The Clear View building itself wasn’t cited for any deficiencies by the state in recent months, Myers said, and the facility’s history won’t be taken into consideration when Summit applies for its own hospital license.

“If the new management company buys the building and goes in and puts good people in place who provide good care to those who need these mental health services … that’s the positive outcome that we all want, putting the beds back in the system and making sure that care is done right.”

The facility would be Summit’s second in Colorado if approved by state regulators. The group purchased Peak View Behavioral Health in Colorado Springs from Strategic Behavioral in January.

Peak View did report one incident this year after three teenage patients escaped for two hours in April. State officials later determined that Summit handled the incident appropriately, and employees were given additional training afterward.

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