KITSAP – Harrison Medical Center provided a preview of what its expanded Silverdale campus might look like, and also indicated its plans for a downtown Bremerton campus, during a presentation to the Central Kitsap Community Council Nov. 19.

Jim Alvarez, executive director, support services for Harrison Medical Center, said Harrison was finished with the “concept” design, which called for the Silverdale campus to be flexible and efficient and a “reset” of how healthcare in Kitsap was delivered, with modernized facilities for both the hospital and for ambulatory care.

The expanded hospital will also feature a medical office building on-site to house specialists. The campus will also have a cancer center. In Bremerton, there will be an ambulatory center that will provide primary care, a diagnostic lab and a primary-care residency program.

“Part of this is how do we help control those costs by providing the right care in the right setting from primary care to walk-in clinics to urgent care to even the virtual urgent care that you saw the system roll out over the summer,” Alvarez said.

The Silverdale campus will be built to provide great views of trails, trees, the mountains and Dyes Inlet.

A view of the Silverdale Campus as viewed from Ridgetop Boulevard and looking north.

A tall skyscraper-like tower will house inpatient beds and features lots of windows. Below the tower are three floors for labs, surgery, dining, emergency services and a warehouse.

Sid Uhnick Drive will be re-routed several hundred feet to the southwest so that it connects with the Silverdale campus’ entrance road. A traffic light will be installed at the intersection. A rear road will provide access for emergency vehicles.

The plans include options that would allow Harrison to expand to a larger campus in the future.

“We’ll probably start moving dirt for the parking garage late spring / early summer. And we hope to be fully engaged in building the tower by fall. The goal was to have some services open by October of 2018, which is the 100th anniversary of the first patient at Harrison Medical Center. We’re really pushing to that goal. The full facility probably won’t be open until early 2019.”

Alvarez said Harrison has worked with the Department of Health to complete the steps necessary to move the hospital beds. That process will take about a year.

• Changes for downtown Bremerton

Alvarez said there were many plans for “re-purposing” the Bremerton hospital.

“We’re prepared to tear it down to the ground and leave it a lot for future development. What we will not do is leave urban blight in our wake, so we’re carrying money to demolish the building if we have to.”

But Alvarez said Harrison was looking to see if there was another group who could make use of the building instead of having the building demolished.

“The trouble is it needs about $150 million worth of renovations if someone’s going to use it in the future,” Alvarez said.

“And so you can tear it down for $4 million, build a nice $50 million building and be money ahead. The math always gets us. You see that huge building and think there’s an opportunity to reuse it, but when you start running the numbers … it’s seen its useful life. It’s time for something else. We are committed not to leave a boarded-up building, so it’s just a matter of what do we do. We own five pieces of property in Bremerton. We need a new piece on the other side towards downtown.”

Alvarez said a new or remodeled Bremerton hospital campus would likely be located closer to downtown Bremerton, as Harrison determined through a study that would be a location that would best serve its customers.

Alvarez said Harrison’s other locations in Port Orchard, Belfair and Silverdale were a factor in deciding to locate a campus near downtown Bremerton.

“If we (built) along Wheaton Way or somewhere in east Bremerton …  it’s almost as fast to go to Silverdale,” he said of the decision to focus on the downtown Bremerton core.

Alvarez said a downtown Bremerton site has not yet been selected, but that it would likely be past Olympic College.

A plan shows the existing Silverdale Harrison Medical building, center, a new tower, to the left, and a parking structure, above. A re-aligned Sid Uhnick Drive is also visible here.