Published on May 20, 2011

Genesis Hires First Psychiatric Hospitalist

Genesis Medical Center, Davenport has a new approach to the area's critical shortage of psychiatrists. The hospital has hired the Quad Cities' first psychiatric hospitalist.

Psychiatrist Jeffrey Weyeneth, M.D., has joined Genesis to oversee the management of adult inpatients on the Behavioral Health Unit. As a hospitalist, he will be dedicated full-time to treating psychiatric patients who are in the hospital.

Dr. Weyeneth is already a familiar face at Genesis. He has been at Vera French Community Mental Health Center as a child and adult psychiatrist for the past eight years. He also has served patients part-time on the Genesis Behavioral Health Unit.

His new hospital position fills a crucial need at Genesis and highlights the continuing challenges of a specialty plagued by a shortage of behavioral health specialists, low government reimbursements, a lack of mental health parity, and an influx of psychiatrists reaching retirement age.

"For me, this was a great opportunity. I really enjoy inpatient psychiatry," Dr. Weyeneth says. "One of the things that drew me to Genesis was the high volume of inpatient needs, the chance to do more consultation, and to develop a good relationship with other hospital units like the Emergency Department and the Intensive Care Unit. We share a lot of common patients.”

"What made my decision is the outstanding staff here. I've already worked with these people, and I know they do a great job. It's a very good, dynamic team."

A great need

Iowa ranks 47th in the nation for the number of psychiatrists per capita.

"There is a huge shortage of psychiatrists," said Julie Manas, President of Genesis Medical Center, Davenport. "The only way we thought we could consistently have inpatient coverage is to move toward a hospitalist model and hire our own.

"We're very fortunate Dr. Weyeneth expressed an interest. He has been with Vera French and Genesis for a number of years and is a known entity. He has been a joy to work with through the transition process."

Genesis plans to add more psychiatric hospitalists, and the hope is a second one will arrive in August, Manas said.  "There is plenty of need in the community for our inpatient mental health beds. Our problem, and it is a problem across the country, has been finding psychiatrists who can place patients in those beds and oversee their care."

In Iowa, the shortage of psychiatrists has been particularly acute in rural areas and has forced some hospital behavioral health units to close. More than a quarter of the psychiatrist positions in the state are unfilled.

"Psychiatry is the leading specialty shortage in the state. It has been a priority of the Iowa Medical Society and the Iowa Hospital Association, but it doesn't have an easy fix," said Frank Claudy, M.D., Vice President of Medical Staff Affairs, Genesis Health System.

"Dr. Weyeneth has been a member of the Quad City medical community for some time with Vera French, which continues to be our outpatient partner. We hope that developing this psychiatric hospitalist program -- the first in our area -- will allow us to recruit even more mental health professionals with the promise of inpatient coverage.

It's a challenge for psychiatrists to do both outpatient and inpatient coverage, Dr. Claudy said. "We have had a devoted group of physicians providing psychiatric services, and many of them are near retirement age. We can't and don't expect the same type of call service from our most senior physicians."

Varied background

Dr. Weyeneth's path to Genesis has been a well-traveled one.

He grew up in Peoria, Ill., and received his bachelor's degree from Bradley University and his medical degree from the University of Illinois.  After graduation, he spent several years active duty in the Navy, completing a psychiatric internship at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, VA serving as a ship medical officer and at a Naval addictions rehabilitation clinic.

While in the Navy Reserve, he completed his Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship and Psychiatry Residency at the University of Kentucky before coming to Vera French in 2003.

In 2005, Dr. Weyeneth was recalled to active duty for a year in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and led a post-traumatic stress disorder program at the naval hospital in Pensacola, Fla. Now a Commander in the Navy Reserve, he has served in Thailand after the tsunami and in Haiti after the earthquake. Just recently, he returned from a month in Japan as part of disaster relief efforts there. 

"Mental health has always been a very underserved area," Dr. Weyeneth says. "In medical school, I saw a need and not an awfully lot of people interested in filling that need. Iowa is facing the same crisis as a lot of rural states with somewhat isolated populations. There aren't many providers to go around. Those providers tend to be congregated in higher population areas and that limits access to people in rural areas."

Dr. Weyeneth looks forward to his new role as the Quad Cities' first psychiatric hospitalist.

 "Genesis needs someone full-time to handle the many inpatient psychiatric needs," he says. "Iowa is having a hard time keeping psychiatrists  in the state, and every year, there are fewer psychiatric beds. We need a facility that can take inpatients, and Genesis is one of the few in the area."

Critical Care Director Carla Roman, MBA, BSN, RN, who also directs behavioral health, concludes:  "Dr. Weyeneth's arrival this month is the beginning of what will be a great program -- a rebirth of our behavioral health services at Genesis. He will take our services to a whole new level," she said. "This was part of Genesis' commitment as an organization to maintaining mental health services in the community."

-- By Linda Barlow, Genesis