Could a Tri-Cities hospital be turned into a detox center? Study has answers
A feasibility study has been completed on establishing a center for in-patient detoxification and treatment for addiction in the Trios Health hospital building near downtown Kennewick, once Trios is no longer using the building.
The Kennewick Public Hospital District board will discuss the study, which has not been publicly released, at its meeting at 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29. The public can attend the meeting over the internet, with information on logging in at kenkphd.com/meetings.
The study was commissioned by the public hospital district, which remains after what originally was the Kennewick General Hospital was sold to a private company. Both Benton and Franklin counties contributed money to pay for the study.
LifePoint Health, the owner of Trios Health, is interested in consolidating services at its Southridge campus in Kennewick. Now the Auburn Street building houses the Trios Women’s and Children’s Hospital, a birthing center.
The feasibility study includes a business plan that outlines operational costs, corporate structure and expected revenue sourced needed to make an addiction recovery center self-supporting.
The study also includes an architectural assessment of the Auburn Street hospital building.
The center is proposed to include detoxification services, including an area that could be used by law enforcement agencies. Now the Tri-Cities is the only major metropolitan area in Eastern Washington without a detox center.
Other services would include inpatient treatment, family education, counseling, transitional housing, research and, perhaps, pediatric transition services.
“The proposed behavioral health center in Kennewick will reduce repeat visits to hospital emergency departments (and) help reduce crime and repeat offenses,” said Gary Long, chairman of the hospital district board.
It also should have economic benefits, keeping treatment dollars in the community and providing a key asset for employers, he said.
Having a Tri-Cities center should allow people to find and receive addiction recovery without a delay and. And because they are being treated in their local community, their families can participate in treatment, helping increase the success of treatment, Long said.
The hospital district is working with the Benton Franklin Recovery Coalition to establish the recovery center.
Ascension Recovery Services of Morgantown, W.V., prepared the business plan included in the feasibility study and Arculus Design and Technical Services of Kennewick conducted the architectural review.