Hearing on new patient tower for Puyallup hospital highlights need and staffing concerns

A public hearing Friday hosted by the Washington state Department of Health attracted both support and criticism for expansion plans at Puyallup’s Good Samaritan Hospital amid current labor challenges.

The hospital at 401 15th Ave. SE in Puyallup is part of the Tacoma-based MultiCare Health System.

The three-and-a half-hour hearing was a chance for the health system to offer its plans in a public forum, with public comment and a Q and A session.

MultiCare has filed a Certificate of Need with the state DOH for a 242,660 square foot patient care tower that would add 160 acute care beds to the hospital with room to grow. At project completion, the hospital would be licensed for a total of 535 acute care beds.

According to the application, “This patient care tower will include four floors of 40 beds each, plus a fifth floor of shell and core, which can accommodate an additional 40 beds and will be completed at a to-be-determined future date.”

The estimated capital cost associated with the project is $402,743.983.

In opening remarks, Good Samaritan President and Chief Operating Officer Jim Beatty noted the area’s continued, rapid growth.

“East Pierce County is a large and growing healthcare market and estimates of resident need indicate ... an additional 140 acute care beds by 2028 and 250 beds by 2036,” he said.

“Good Samaritan is currently full,” he said. “Without additional capacity, it would eventually be unable to continue to meet demand for acute health care service. If this project is not approved, residents of East Pierce will be forced to seek care in other areas.”

With respect to capacity and need, all sides agreed Good Sam was overflowing, with descriptions of triage tents in the parking lot and hallway beds in the ER.

Puyallup Police Chief Scott Engle, who also attended the virtual hearing, said given his department’s interactions with the hospital and its ER, “I personally believe the need for more beds was about three or four years ago.”

He added, “It will be likely five or six years before a new patient tower opens. Our community need is tremendous.”

While no one questioned the need, many questioned current and future staffing levels.

In response, officials at the hearing focused on elements of current recruiting, fellowships, training and other retention efforts to ease strain among current staff.

June Altaras, RN and executive vice president and chief quality, safety and nursing officer for MultiCare, took the bulk of the staffing questions at the hearing.

“Our primary care nursing model is no longer sustainable. We need an approach in which we utilize every team member to the top of their license,” she said ahead of explaining the recruiting/retention efforts. Those efforts, among others, include a nursing support robot, doubling new graduates and growing the system’s own support personnel, as well as virtual nursing and taking recruiting international.

Most of the questions about the project came from nursing staff at the hospital, who repeatedly asked directly and indirectly how the health system planned to ensure safe staffing while current staff faced labor shortages and an overwhelming number of patients.

A nurse asked why recommendations from staffing committees over safe patient ratios and additional help for breaks had not been pursued.

Marni Leonard, Good Sam’s chief financial officer, responded at the hearing, “We believe we’re following the staffing law.”

A letter to DOH from the Washington State Nurses Association, which represents nurses at the hospital, underscored the staffing questions after the hearing. A WSNA representative shared a copy of the letter with The News Tribune.

“MultiCare’s understaffing at Good Samaritan limits nurses’ ability to provide quality patient care and creates an unsafe work environment. If MultiCare cannot or will not staff adequately at the current Good Samaritan facility, how will it staff a hospital with 160 additional beds?”

The hearing came two days after hundreds of Good Sam nurses represented by WSNA held an informational picket outside the hospital over staffing and breaks. The nurses have been in the bargaining process with MultiCare for 13 weeks, according to WSNA’s letter on Friday.

DOH on Friday said a decision for the project is scheduled for June 26.