Benton County is expected to take over construction of the former Kennewick General Hospital on Auburn Street on Tuesday.
The building is expected to be used as an intermediate recovery campus for patients with intellectual fitness and addiction issues, as well as nearby construction that the county will contract to provide more inpatient services.
Benton County commissioners on Friday legalized signing final documents to acquire LifePoint Health’s 123,000-square-foot construction for $1. 6 million. It is expected to be Tuesday, November 1.
Efforts to create a recovery center for Tri-Cities began with a grassroots effort in 2018 when Michele Gerber, who lost her son to substance abuse, introduced the Benton Franklin Recovery Coalition.
The Kennewick Public Hospital Board then made its project to provide comprehensive intellectual fitness for the Tri-Cities region, with Benton County stepping in with the resources to make the recovery center a reality.
Benton and Franklin County commissioners approved a 0. 1 percent sales tax to pay for the operation of a new center.
LifePoint Health has agreed to sell the construction of a recovery center, but has long said there will be restrictions on it being able to compete with those it already offers in Tri-Cities as owner of Trios Health and Lourdes Health.
The sale of the construction comes with a restriction that prohibits intellectual health care from patients hospitalized for more than adult hours.
As a result, Benton County is negotiating a lease for an area not far from the construction of the hospital to ensure it would be difficult to supply under this restriction.
The lease is nearing completion and an announcement is possible in a few weeks, said Matt Rasmussen, deputy county administrator.
It also expects to solicit service control proposals for leasers this week.
The leased area will serve as an access point to the new Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Center and is expected to provide crisis stabilization, abstinence and in-hospital detoxification.
It will serve as a drop-off point for law enforcement for others who want to detox or who are in an intellectual fitness crisis.
People in crisis can also enter or be brought into the facility through family circle members, Rasmussen said.
Then, the course would be presented at the site of the structure of the former Kennewick General Hospital.
The county is an intellectual fitness and addiction recovery campus, with providers contracted to hire an area in the Auburn Street building.
The plans now come with transitional housing for other people coming out of recovery, Rasmussen said.
The county would also like to have behavioral skills for the youth there. The 72-hour inpatient intellectual fitness restriction only applies to adults.
The county will seek those two services first.
The recommendation and others that are provided there, will have anyone who is interested in renting a space.
The county also negotiated permission to use the area there for the Benton Franklin Health District, though no resolution has been made on moving services.
Rasmussen expects all facilities in leased construction to be in position until 2025, some installations can be implemented earlier. In the meantime, he will also apply to open facilities on the Auburn Street campus.
The old construction of the hospital will want to be modernized.
The original building the county purchased opened as a network hospital in 1952.
When Trios Health expanded to a new campus in South Kennewick in 2014, construction in central Kennewick remained in use as Trio’s women’s and children’s hospital.
About 1400 young children were born there a year until LifePoint Health closed construction and opened a new birthing center on the campus of Trios Southridge Hospital.
An inspection that Auburn Street’s design and roof were in good shape, Rasmussen said. But the heating and cooling system, the electrical and mechanical systems will have to be improved.
This can only be done in stages as the area is added and remodeled for each.
The charge of buying the construction, renovating and improving the construction of the old hospital and the separated rented one nearby will be paid with $1. 5 million that the Washington State Legislature approved in its last session, $7 million in the state and federal budget and $5 million. in the American Rescue Plan Act for the county.
The operating and leasing prices of the current facility will be covered through the new sales tax.
This content is not available due to your privacy preferences.
This content is not available due to your privacy preferences.
This content is not available due to your privacy preferences.
This content is not available due to your privacy preferences.