By Chris Tucker

A 520,000-square-foot hospital expansion, new medical office building and a new parking garage are possible if Harrison Medical Center green-lights its Silverdale campus expansion project.

Harrison Medical Center and its affiliate, Franciscan Health System, submitted preliminary plans to Kitsap County Community Development which outline the expansion.

The changes could occur in three phases or simultaneously with the end result being a 350-bed hospital with two towers up to 180 feet tall. The medical office building would be 80,000 square feet and four stories tall. The parking garage would be 240,000 square feet. The plans also call for a “healing garden” for green space.

The total size of the new construction would be 840,000 square feet. The $240 million expansion could be completed in four years.

A helicopter pad would be relocated from its current location near the intersection of Ridgetop Boulevard and Myhre Road to a new location at the northern side of the property.

Architecture firm Rice Fergus Miller drafted the plans.

Scott Thompson, communications manager for CHI Franciscan Health, said the Harrison Board of Directors will make a final decision on the potential expansion later this month at their board meeting.

A Bremerton Community Health Care Advisory Committee will meet over the next six months to help decide which services should remain in Bremerton. Their recommendations will be sent to the hospital board.

Harrison currently runs two kitchens, two radiology departments, two emergency rooms and two operating suites. The centralized Silverdale campus will save up to $15 million annually and also provide a more modern medical facility.

The Bremerton hospital, which opened in 1965, is showing its age and will require replacement of its plumbing, ventilation system and roof at some point.

The rooms at Bremerton are semi-private with two patients per room. The Silverdale expansion is designed with single-patient private rooms.