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The hospital purchased the 50-bed facility for adults and adolescents in 1986, and this has been the first significant investment in the 18-acre property off College Street in Lacey since, Providence Chief Operating Officer Paul Wilkinson said.
Wilkinson and other Providence officials took part in a Catholic blessing of the renovated facility – something Providence typically performs as a Catholic organization – and also attended an open house.
Staff members at the facility said that one of the biggest changes as a result of the renovation is enhanced privacy for adult detox patients. Previously, those patients were confined to an approximately 500-square-foot room with four beds and one bathroom for the initial three- to five-day detoxification process, said Teri Johnson, an adult supervisor at the facility. Now, the adult detox wing has six semi-private rooms for up to 12 adults, offering more privacy and shortening wait times for patients suffering from addiction.
During construction, the average number of adult and adolescent patients at the center each day was 35; that is expected to grow to 40 or 50 after renovations are complete at the end of the month, Wilkinson said.
“I think the need is there,” he said, adding that patients previously were turned away sometimes because there wasn’t space.
Center director Rae Simpson, who attended the blessing but not the open house, told The Olympian last week that the center accommodated more than 900 patients last year, including detox patients, and Simpson said she expects that number to rise 20 percent this year.
“It has a lot to do with our world today,” she said about the increase in patients struggling with an addiction. “Drugs and alcohol are easier to get, and they are starting at a younger age.” In the past six months, the center has treated an 11-year-old boy for an OxyContin addiction, she said.
After the three- to five-day detoxification process, a patient typically moves on to a 14- to 21-day residential treatment program at the center, followed by a 10-week outpatient program, Johnson said. The first part of the program is about stabilizing the patient, followed by changing the patient’s lifestyle during the outpatient program, she said.
Rolf Boone: 360-754-5403
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