SEATTLE — Washington broke ground Thursday on the newest Western State Hospital building, offering what officials hope will be a fresh start for the psychiatric facility.
The institution in Lakewood, Pierce County, is Washington’s main psychiatric hospital, responsible for caring for patients with some of the most challenging mental health conditions.
The new $947 million facility, slated to open in 2028, will have 350 beds and help the state hospital in its shift to accept primarily forensic patients — those who come through the legal system — and move other patients out of the state psychiatric hospital and into community facilities.
Crews have been demolishing some of the old brick buildings on the hospital campus since earlier this year.
The new hospital was a key piece of Gov. Jay Inslee’s plan to revive the state’s mental health system, which has faced many roadblocks over the past few years.
“I think it’s a fair statement that we’re moving from a mental health system rooted in the 18th century and moving it into the 21st century,” Inslee said at Thursday’s event. “I think it’s great — a vision I’ve had is now coming to pass.”
Western State Hospital’s construction plan
Western State Hospital is planning a major construction project, including the building of a new 350-bed forensic hospital that will serve patients who are referred through the criminal court system.
Source: Esri, Washington state Department of Social and Health Services (Mark Nowlin / The Seattle Times)
Of his mental health plan overall, Inslee said it was “hard to be totally dissatisfied” given the recent progress the state has made.
“I guess the question is, could I have done it in the first week as governor,” he said. “You could always have done things earlier. Things take time. I’d like to see this hospital here now. It’s going to take a couple of years.”
The state originally planned to remove nearly all civil patients from the state hospital and break ground on the new facility in 2023. In the meantime, it stopped admitting most new civil patients, and county jails became overloaded with people who couldn’t get a bed at Western State.
Mark Thompson, the CEO of the Gage Center, which houses the state hospital’s forensic patients, said delays aren’t uncommon with large capital projects.
“The initial phase was just getting everyone’s buy-in,” he said. The design work and the demolition also took a long time, he said.
The past few years have been challenging all around for the state psychiatric facility. The state was out of compliance for years with a federal order that mandated time frames to get jailed people mental health treatment and evaluations, leading to lawsuits and hefty fines.
In the past few months, after the state bought a separate facility in Tukwila that opened up bed space for civil patients, Western State Hospital has reduced its wait times, and the state is now in compliance with the court order. But staying in compliance, DSHS officials have said, will depend on the state’s ability to keep up with the need for beds at the state hospital, other state facilities and in the community.
Officials hope the new hospital building will help with that goal, by increasing the state hospital’s net number of beds. The city of Lakewood currently permits the state hospital to have up to 857 beds on its campus. As of now, it has 438 forensic beds and 307 civil beds.
The new facility will promote trauma-informed care, said Jessica Nelson, a spokesperson for the Department of Social and Health Services.
“The design is also aimed at providing spaces that expand beyond the traditional hospital ward and mimic parts of life outside of the hospital setting,” Nelson said. She noted that patients would travel from their ward to an area for meals, treatment and school, as if they were stepping out of their home into a neighborhood.
The architecture firm designing the new facility, HOK, said in a description of the project that it would emphasize natural light and connect the indoors with the outdoors.
Dave Chipchase, an assistant director for the Behavioral Health Authority, said the state will have to close some beds as it opens the new 350-bed facility, to ensure it doesn’t go over the permitted number of beds.
“We have 3 1/2 years to figure out the best way to serve the patients,” he said. As the state aims to move most of its civil patients out of the state hospital and into outpatient facilities, he said, it’s possible the number of civil beds at the state hospital will drop. But he said those decisions have yet to be made.
The new building may also allow the state hospital to reclaim a large chunk of federal funding it lost years ago. In 2018, after the state failed several safety inspections, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid pulled about $53 million in funding, or 20% of the facility’s annual budget.
The state hospital has not pursued accreditation with its existing building again, said Thompson, because it would require too many changes. But he said the state plans to seek federal accreditation again once the new structure is built.
“This building is being designed to meet those standards,” he said.
At Thursday’s groundbreaking, Inslee touted the hospital’s ability to help people in both the short and long term.
“People get better,” he said. “They come into these hospitals and they return to their lives. That’s gratifying.”
