Psychiatric Centers Profits Drop : Health care: Second-quarter earnings for the Laguna Hills company are down 52% compared to a year earlier.

Community Psychiatric Centers, depressed by a slump in the mental health care industry, on Wednesday reported a 52% decline in quarterly profit compared to the same period a year earlier.

The Laguna Hills company, which operates one of the nation’s largest chains of psychiatric hospitals, said it had net income of $12.9 million, or 29 cents a share, for its second fiscal quarter, which ended May 31. That compared to a profit of $26.7 million, or 58 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue declined 20% to $94.7 million from $117.7 million.

The company blamed the drop on the growing presence of managed-care companies, which negotiate discounted prices with health-care providers and other insurers. It was the fourth consecutive quarter where earnings dropped sharply compared to the same period a year earlier.

“Things are pretty much the same,” said Sharon Dorsey Wagoner, an analyst for Argus Research, an investment advisory firm in New York. “The industry hasn’t come out of this yet. There have been such efforts at cost containment across the board. Volume seems to be the key.”

Patients at Community Psychiatric’s 50 facilities were hospitalized an average of 18 1/2 days in the second quarter, up slightly from 18 days in the previous three months but still 2 1/2 days below the average stay a year earlier.

“I don’t think there’s anything to write home about,” said Kathleen M. Miner, an analyst with Cowen & Co. in Boston.

The latest report “was pretty much in line with what was expected,” Miner said. Health-care providers “are still trying to figure it out and find the correct responses.”

About 40% of Community Psychiatric’s business this fiscal year is expected to come from patients covered by managed care, compared to 30% in 1991 and just 20% in 1990, company spokeswoman Suzanne Hovdey said.

In response, the company has been expanding its outpatient and in-home services. In May, Community Psychiatric announced plans to convert at least two of its hospitals into transitional-care facilities, where patients with ailments that are complicated but not severe can get lower-cost treatment. The first of those are scheduled to open in October.

Analysts say the conversion could help fill empty hospital beds but note that the company is new to that aspect of medical care.

“It’s a totally different business for them,” Miner said. “It’s a little premature to predict how they will do.”

The company’s net income in the second quarter included a $4.7-million settlement that Ontario Health Insurance Plan paid in March. The Canadian insurer owed Community Psychiatric treatment costs for patients sent from Canada to the United States.

For the first half of its fiscal year, the company earned $19.9 million, down 58% from $47.9 million a year earlier. Revenue fell 19% to $179.1 million from $220.8 million.

The company’s stock remained unchanged at $11.50 per share on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.