CHI Franciscan Health took another significant step toward its commitment to expanding and improving health care in Kitsap County and Olympic Peninsula. The Tacoma-based healthcare system formally submitted a Certificate of Need application to the Washington State Department of Health requesting regulatory approval to build a new, state-of-the-art hospital at Harrison Medical Center-Silverdale. The certificate of need follows a Letter of Intent that CHI Franciscan submitted in August 2016 as part the regulatory requirement process for filing a CON application.
“We are committed to meeting the needs of our communities by establishing the most efficient and innovative health care system throughout the peninsula,” said Chief Executive Officer Ketul J. Patel, CHI Franciscan Health. “Our investment into our Silverdale campus will transform the way individuals and families receive care and ensure access to a premier facility close to home.”
CHI Franciscan’s investment will transform Harrison Medical Center-Silverdale into a state-of-the-art hospital that can accommodate more world-class outpatient medical and surgical services. The expanded Silverdale campus focuses on patient comfort with private rooms, more space for families and visitors, and quieter registration and lobby areas. The community benefits as well, with improvements to a community walking trail.
The medical center will serve the community with acute care services such as heart care, a Level III trauma center, a cancer center and many other services to care for patients in the community versus patients needing to travel outside of the Olympic Peninsula area. CHI Franciscan hopes to begin caring for patients at the new medical center beginning in 2019.
CHI Franciscan is also investing in health care in Bremerton, too, and plans to open a 30,000 square foot outpatient clinic with primary care and urgent care services. The clinic will be part of Harrison Medical Center’s new medical residency program, which the health care center plans to launch in 2017.
At this time, the plan to move beds involves a phased approach to parallel the construction and expansion in Silverdale. Phase one will involve the transfer of 168 inpatient beds while retaining 74 acute licensed beds on the Bremerton license until the expansion is complete. The estimated cost of phase one is $283 million, with phase two projected to cost $201 million. In all, CHI Franciscan Health expects to invest more than $530 million to further enhance the health care services in Kitsap County and the Olympic Peninsula. This investment also includes building an additional floor with 32 beds at CHI Franciscan Health’s St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor.
CHI Franciscan anticipates that the Department of Health will make a decision on the CON application in mid-2017.
