Providence Health Care in Spokane, Wash., has teamed up with Kirkland, Wash.-based Fairfax Behavioral Health to build a 100-bed psychiatric hospital in Spokane by early next year, reports The Spokesman-Review.
Here are four things to know.
1. The project is meant to meet the state's increased demand for mental health services. Washington has received sanctions for violating the constitutional rights of patients, who sometimes remain incarcerated instead of receiving treatment due to lack of available psychiatric beds, according to the report. For instance, the report notes, only three facilities east of the Cascades offer inpatient psychiatric beds.
2. The increased demand for mental health services is attributed, in part, to more people gaining insurance coverage under the ACA, as well as other factors such as better awareness of mental illness.
3. Fairfax will operate the new psychiatric hospital, which, once complete, will reduce the number of psychiatric beds at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane by 28, according to the report.
4. The $34 million psychiatric hospital is scheduled to open in spring 2018, the report states.