Providence officials oppose competing mental health hospital plan

About 40 people testified at a public hearing Wednesday about a 75-bed mental health hospital proposed in Lacey by a company called US HealthVest.

The two-hour public hearing, organized by the state Department of Health and its certificate of need program, was held at Lacey Timberland Library. Audience members quickly filled the seats, while others stood in the back of the room.

Of those 40 people, about half had ties to Providence Health & Services, which operates Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, and all spoke out strongly against US HealthVest and its current application before the state health department, which is called a “certificate of need.”

Others who testified struck a neutral tone, emphasizing how great the mental health need is in Thurston County and the region. A smaller number spoke in support of the US HealthVest proposal, while some cried foul about the competitive nature of the comments expressed at the hearing.

Providence Health & Services, working with Fairfax Behavioral Health, recently submitted a letter of intent to the state to bring an 85-bed mental health hospital to Thurston County. Its certificate of need application is not expected until the end of the month.

Some mentioned the Providence plan in their comments, but Certificate of Need Manager Janis Sigman cut them off, saying Wednesday’s hearing was only about US HealthVest’s proposal.

“I will stop you and ask you to move on from those comments,” Sigman told the audience.

It was suggested during the meeting that the state would pick one proposal over the other, but Sigman said both could be approved.

Medrice Coluccio, chief executive of Providence Health & Services in Southwest Washington, kicked off the public testimony by saying she was “strongly opposed” to the US HealthVest certificate of need application.

She said she had “grave concerns” about US HealthVest’s “financial fragility, cash flow challenges, lack of longevity in the communities they serve, ownership changes, poor operation-site selection, inaccuracies in its application, and insufficient charity care and admission policies and practices.”

And that was just the beginning. Providence officials who followed her made similar comments.

Randy Marston, director of the Marston Center in Lacey that provides a range of counseling services, spoke in support of the US HealthVest proposal. He said a number of his clients fall into the category of “mentally ill, chemically abusive.”

“We need, badly, mental health beds in this county,” he said.

Sheriff’s officials and police from Thurston, Mason and Grays Harbor counties emphasized the need for mental health services.

Thurston County Sheriff John Snaza said the average population in the county jail numbers 500, 35 percent to 45 percent diagnosed with a mental illness.

But Lacey Police Chief Dusty Pierpoint said he called law enforcement near US HealthVest’s mental health hospital in the Chicago area and it did not receive glowing reviews.

One proposed location for the US HealthVest is on Lacey’s Woodland Square Loop, which is near Huntamer Park, an Intercity Transit station, and the Lacey campus of South Puget Sound Community College. Pierpoint said he wants more clarity about how patients would be discharged, he said.

Katya Shkurkin, a Lacey-based therapist, took issue with the notion of competing hospital proposals.

“There is plenty of market share here,” she said. “There is so much need for so many beds that we should support this facility (US HealthVest) and other facilities and find pathways between them.”

Dr. Richard Kresch, president and chief executive of US HealthVest, declined to comment after the meeting, saying he was in a hurry to catch a flight. At the top of the meeting, Kresch said US HealthVest was trying to address the “massive, unmet need for psychiatric in-patient beds in the South Sound region.”

This story was originally published May 4, 2016 at 4:43 PM with the headline "Providence officials oppose competing mental health hospital plan."