EVERETT, SEPT. 18: Behavioral healthcare agency Compass Health celebrated the grand opening of its newest facility on Wednesday, bringing needed intensive behavioral healthcare to Northwest Washington.
The new Marc Healing Center is the second phase of a campus redevelopment project on Broadway Avenue and will support adults with the most intensive behavioral health needs.
The 72,000 square-foot facility offers several health services, including a 16-bed Evaluation and Treatment unit (E&T) and a 16-bed Crisis Triage Center. The center is estimated to serve 1,500 individuals a year, Compass Health CEO Tom Sebastian said during a tour of the facility on Wednesday, Sept. 17.
According to Sebastian, the center will help address and prevent mental health crises and mitigate demand on first responders, law enforcement and area hospitals.
Workers will be able to help patients stabilize within six to seven days, then help patients transition back home or with a discharge plan in place, Sebastian said.
The Marc Healing Center can act as an alternative to months of institutionalization at institutions like Western State Hospital in Lakewood, Sebastian said.
There are four floors, the first being the entry area on 3322 Broadway Ave. The second floor includes a pharmacy, offices and a conference room. Both floors opened in mid-August.
The third-floor acts as an Evaluation and Treatment (E&T) facility, with rooms, visitor areas, a courtroom, an intake area and an outdoor feature. This floor works solely with involuntary detained patients. Their initial stay can be up to 120 hours, then a court may order up to 14 more days for additional treatment if needed.
Clients on this floor could be seen three times a day, seven days a week to ensure they receive the support they need to be able to live successfully in the community, Sebastian said.
After being released, workers will help establish an outpatient care plan with clients.
“The number one reason for rehospitalization is that people are not compliant with their outpatient care. They don’t take their meds, they don’t go to their follow-up appointments,” Deidra Parsinen, Impatient Program Manager at Compass Health, said. “That’s always our goal, to get clients to a point of being stable so that they recognize they need to do those things.”
The fourth floor is a Crisis Triage Center, for self-admitted cases, with a similar setup to the third floor. The top two floors each have 16 beds, a federal limit to receive Medicaid funding for inpatient facilities.
However, there is space for additional beds in the facility if that rule were to change, Sebastian said.
Both the third and fourth floors will be operational by the end of the year.
The project cost $71 million and was supported by Washington State, Snohomish County, the City of Everett and a capital campaign that raised nearly $12 million.
The Broadway Campus takes up the entire 3300 block of Broadway Ave. The first phase, Andy’s Place, opened in 2021 and provides 82 units of permanent supportive housing that helps individuals out of homelessness by providing low-barrier access to housing and services.
The next and final phase of the campus redevelopment will include a 100,000 square foot building to house behavioral health services and a primary healthcare clinic. The facility will also host permanent supportive housing units and space for Compass Health administrative offices.
