Betty Ford Center achieves major service milestone

The 100,000^th patient in the history of the Betty Ford Center walked through the doors to admission on Valentine’s Day morning. Of course, for an addiction treatment facility, we’re talking more “quiet satisfaction” than “raucous celebration” here, but time was taken to commemorate nonetheless.

While the identity of patient 100,000 at the 30-year-old center was not divulged this month, “It seems appropriate that the person admitted as our 100,000^th patient is a woman, given Betty Ford’s insistence 30-plus years ago that half our treatment beds be reserved for women,” center board chair Mary Pattiz said in a statement this week.

Officials at the Rancho Mirage, Calif., center did not realize until later in the day that the milestone had been reached, but once that was known to the center’s administration, CEO John Schwarzlose shared the news with staff toward the end of the day.

The 100,000 figure includes all patients who have been served in the center’s inpatient, residential day treatment, intensive outpatient and family programs since the fall of 1982; it does not include the many youths who have participated in the Betty Ford Center’s renowned Children’s Program for children affected by an adult’s addiction.

Schwarzlose also used the occasion to praise the Betty Ford Center staff of 240, which he says has been well-positioned to meet demand for services because it has tended to experience minimal turnover.