The Washington State Department of Health has given Providence Health Care the green light to develop a $37 million, 100-bed psychiatric hospital near its downtown campus.

Providence Health Care, which operates Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center & Children’s Hospital, Providence Holy Family Hospital, and other Inland Northwest facilities, will partner with Kirkland-based Fairfax Behavioral Health to build and operate the new hospital. Fairfax operates a 157-bed, standalone psychiatric hospital in Kirkland and a 30-bed adult general psychiatric unit located in Everett, on the seventh floor of Providence Health & Services’ Pacific campus.

In its certificate of need application to the state, Providence calls for the new hospital to be built at the site of the 62-year-old Fifth & Browne Medical Building, which will be torn down.

Providence Health & Services spokeswoman Liz DeRuyter says the goal is to complete the hospital in 2017; however, more specific timelines haven’t been established 

Providence Health Care and Fairfield Behavioral Health filed the certificate-of-need application for the project with the state’s health department last June. The state requires a certificate-of-need approval before a health-care provider can expand its number of inpatient  hospital beds. 

The state health department rejected separate, competing certificate of need applications submitted by Signature Healthcare Services in California and Springstone LLC of Kentucky for development of psychiatric facilities here.

Bart Eggen, one of the executive directors of the state health department’s certificate of need program, says a selection committee approved Providence’s proposal over the others because Providence already has extensive connections with the existing psychiatric community.

“Providence will have the ability to very quickly and seamlessly maintain site services. For that reason, it was in the best interest of the community. It was an obvious advantage for Sacred Heart,” says Eggen, who adds that all three certificate of need applications met the necessary criteria established by the state’s health department.

The competing Signature and Springstone proposals both called for building 72-bed facilities in Spokane Valley at estimated costs of $22 million and $24 million, respectively.

The Providence/Fairfax proposal calls for offering psychiatric services to children as young as five years of age. By comparison, Signature called for offering services to patients starting at age 12, while Springstone’s proposal called for the treatment of only adults at its proposed facility, another factor Eggen cites as to why Providence and Fairfax got the nod. 

The new hospital is expected to increase both inpatient and outpatient capacity to meet the health care needs of the community. 

Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center & Children’s Hospital is the only hospital in Eastern Washington providing emergency and short-term inpatient psychiatric care. Sacred Heart has 48 adult beds and 24 pediatric beds dedicated to this service, in addition to eight psychiatric beds in the Sacred Heart emergency department. However, it is regularly at capacity and unable to accept additional psychiatric patients from Spokane and the broader region, the application to the state says.

 “Access to behavioral health services is a significant need in our region,” PHC Chief Executive Elaine Couture said in a June press release after Providence submitted its application. “This freestanding hospital will allow us to expand the existing services that Providence already provides and fill a gap in the community.”

The Washington State Mental Health Division says 8 percent of people in Spokane County have a mental illness or serious emotional disturbance, compared to the state average of 5 percent. Nearly 23,000 people in the county have an identifiable mental health condition, it says. 

In addition, 20 percent to 25 percent of the single adult homeless population suffers from some form of severe and persistent mental illness, the agency says.

“The increased capacity will be particularly crucial in assisting the surrounding rural communities that don’t have the necessary staff or facilities to treat and care for this patient population,” Couture said in the June press release.

In partnering with Fairfax, Providence can expand access to care and build on the existing team of physicians, nurses and health care professionals who provide care to patients in the region, Couture said.