Exclusive: This is what it will take to tackle Tri-Cities escalating opioid problem, say health leaders

Turning the Trios Health hospital buildings near downtown Kennewick into a center to treat addiction and provide other behavioral health services is not only a project that is vitally needed, but is financially viable, according to a new study.

The proposed Two Rivers Behavioral Health Recovery Center would meet urgent needs in the Tri-Cities area, the study concluded.

It is the only major metropolitan area in the state without a detoxification and residential rehabilitation facility to combat the opioid epidemic.

The recovery center would offer medically supervised detoxification, inpatient treatment and outpatient treatment.

Not only patients with substance abuse issues would be treated, but the center would accept patients with other mental health issues.

Now the Kennewick Public Hospital District will move forward with helping raise the nearly $15 million needed to convert what was the original Kennewick General Hospital building and other buildings on the Auburn Street campus into a rehabilitation service.

“We do not manage a hospital anymore but our role is to help meet unmet needs in or communities,” said district Commissioner Wanda Briggs. “And this is exactly what this project is all about.”

The hospital district sold Trios Health, which includes the downtown campus and a newer campus in Kennewick’s Southridge area, to what is now LifePoint Health after the Trios hospital fell into bankruptcy.

The district would like to repurpose the building on the campus that dates to 1952 and the contract with a main service provider and possibly some others to operate the center.

Trios agrees to sell

The district commissioners agreed to move forward with the project at a Thursday night board meeting.

“It’s really the future direction for the district,” said Gary Long, chairman of the board of commissioners.

But the project will not move forward until a solid financial plan is in place to make sure there is no risk to the district, district commissioners said.

The district continues to raise about $1.5 million a year in taxes, but about 80% of that was committed as part of the sale of Trios Health to provide charity care and to pay back some lingering Medicare overpayments.

The district’s capital costs to repurposing the older Trios campus would be less than building new, according to a business plan prepared by Ascension Recovery Services of Morgantown, W.V., as part of the feasibility study commissioned by the district with financial support of Benton and Franklin counties.

LifePoint Health has agreed in principle to sell the downtown area campus to the hospital district for $1.6 million.

LifePoint and the district continue to negotiate the final agreement, including the details of services that would be provided at Two Rivers Behavioral Health Recovery Center since Lourdes Health of Pasco, also owned by LifePoint, offers some mental health services.

LifePoint now is using just part of the downtown area campus in Kennewick as the the Trios Women’s and Children’s Hospital, a birthing center.

It is making plans to move the birthing center to its Southridge hospital campus.

With the purchase cost, the capital costs to repurpose the hospital campus would by $14.9 million.

That compares to an estimated cost of $20.6 million to build a new center, according to the study.

Business, law enforcement benefits

District leaders and the nonprofit Benton Franklin Recovery Coalition are preparing to raise the $15 million to convert the hospital through a combination of government money, from state to local governments, other grants and donations.

The Two Rivers Behavioral Health Recovery Center “is absolutely necessary and overdue,” said Michele Gerber, founder of the Benton Franklin Recovery Coalition. The coalition is working with the hospital district on the new recovery center.

She anticipates state support as the proposed center would meet keep mental health goals outlined by Gov. Jay Inslee.

They include hospital-grade care for pregnant women using drugs and providing law enforcement a constructive response to substance abuse dependency and mental health issues as an alternative to arrest.

People with addictions are arrested and jailed repeatedly for the same type of petty crimes, Gerber said.

The center should also help local businesses that struggle with littering, loitering and defaced property by addicted people. If people with addictions are treated, they will go back to a normal way of life, she said.

The center would cut down on repeat visits to Tri-Cities emergency rooms by addicted people who have their immediate medical crisis addressed and then are released without treatment for the addiction, she said.

It also would keep in the community the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent annually by local residents, rather than having the money spent elsewhere in the state or nation, she said.

Tri-Cities treatment lacking

The feasibility study said that Benton County has a higher overdose death rate than the state average.

And the 21 deaths per 100,000 people from 2013-’17 in Benton County is up from 15 deaths per 100,000 in the previous four years, indicating an increasing need for treatment facilities.

“Two-thirds of these deaths involved an opioid,” the feasibility said. “Unfortunately, the increase the rate of opioid and overdose deaths has not been met by an equivalent increase in treatment availability.”

The state lacks intensive inpatient unit beds, with Tri-Cities residents having to travel more than two and a half hours to reach Eastern State Hospital.

Acceptance criteria there is restrictive and the average length of stay at the two state hospitals with intensive inpatient treatment is very short.

Private psychiatric hospitals have varying insurance acceptance, they may have long waiting lists for treatment and travel time from the Tri-Cities is more than three hours at a minimum, the feasibility study said.

“When patients are treated in residential locations far from home, families cannot participate effectively in treatment,” the study said. “Lack of family involvement lowers success and recovery rates.”

‘Healthy mix’ of payers

The plan is for a “no wrong door” facility. Those who walk through the door would be assessed for behavioral health issues and given the appropriate care for their condition.

The center would include a secure area to be used by law enforcement, and also would accept self and family referrals and referrals from drug courts, outpatient clinics and other programs.

Medicaid, Medicare, health insurance and private pay patients would be expected, but the majority of patients likely would be on Medicaid, said Leland Kerr, the hospital district superintendent.

A “healthy mix” of payers will be needed to make the center financially sustainable and to make sure effective treatment is readily available to people of diverse backgrounds, according a to the feasibility study.

About a third of Washington state residents rely on Medicare or Medicaid, and Benton County has one of the highest rates of uninsured people in the state at nearly 15%, according to the study.

Several groups already are interested in occupying the proposed facility, Long said.

Operators of the facility are expected to be picked, so they can have a say in the capital improvements they want, before any construction begins.

Initially, just 42,000 square feet of the buildings on the downtown area hospital campus would be used, according to Arculus Design and Technical Services of Kennewick, which conducted the architectural review for the feasibility study.

That’s roughly half the square footage on the old hospital campus.

Once fundraising is completed and LifePoint is ready to sell the downtown area hospital buildings, construction should take about 12 to 16 months, Long said.