MultiCare’s off-campus emergency department gets green light from Lacey City Council
MultiCare Health System needed a conditional use permit to move forwardwith a new off-campus emergency department in Lacey, and they got it Thursday when the City Council voted to approve a hearings examiner’s recommendation.
The unanimous vote by the council clears the way for the Tacoma-based health care system, which operates Capital Medical Center in west Olympia, to build a 10-bed, 10,000-square-foot emergency department at Golf Club Road Southeast at Pacific Avenue.
Will Callicoat, president of MultiCare Capital Medical Center and the Thurston County market leader for the health system, has said he expects the new facility to open in June 2023.
“I think this is sorely needed in our community,” said Council member Lenny Greenstein before the council vote. “Our current hospital situation is not adequate for the population of Thurston County, so any additional emergency rooms is a great help to the system as a whole.”
Greenstein has a unique perspective on the need for more ER beds because he serves on the council of Thurston County Emergency Management Services.
When hospital emergency rooms get full at Capital Medical Center or Providence St. Peter Hospital, patient delivery times are delayed or patients are sent out of the area, including sometimes to Pierce County, Greenstein said.
“It’s a critical issue in our community,” he said. Area hospitals are doing better at the moment, he said, but summer is coming, and that’s when ER visits typically increase.
Once the off-campus location is complete, it will give MultiCare a total of 22 ER beds in Thurston County.
Providence St. Peter Hospital has 42 emergency department beds and another 25 hallway beds that are regularly in use, spokesman Chris Thomas has said.
Providence doesn’t have plans to expand its emergency department, but does expect to see some relief from crowding once the 85-bed Olympia Behavioral Health facility opens in northeast Lacey.
“We do expect that by having non-medically acute behavioral health patients cared for at Olympia Behavioral Health, it will significantly impact the overall number of patients in the emergency department,” Thomas has said.
This story was originally published June 4, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
