SEQUIM – The Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce hosted a healthcare panel at their monthly meeting Tuesday at Guy Cole Center.
Speakers in attendance were Eric Lewis and Jennifer Burkhardt from Olympic Medical Center and Brent Simcosky, Director of Health Services for the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe.
The topic that dominated the discussion was a proposed Medically Assisted Treatment (MAT) Center to treat opioid addiction. The tribe wants to build it on a 20-acre site behind Costco in Sequim.
Opponents have been vocal in an effort to stop the project, citing concerns such as the potential for increased crime and homelessness the facility might attract to the city. Opponents have asked why the tribe can’t build several smaller MAT centers throughout the county instead of putting one larger centralized facility in Sequim.
Newsradio KONP asked Simcosky that question.
“We don’t want to be a “dose and go”, that’s what those facilities are called. Where a person just comes in, gets a dose and goes. Because we want to be comprehensive, wraparound services. We’re going to provide Primary Care Dental, Behavior Health counseling, childcare. Later on maybe job training. We want to be more comprehensive. You can’t really spread that out over. I’ve heard somebody say, let’s have 12 12 different sites. First off, I’d have to follow the DEA regulations for each one. I’d have regulations and certifications for each one. It’d probably cost me twenty million dollars extra to do that. And then it would be almost impossible to staff because, remember, if you’re doing wraparound services, you want to have all your staff there so that they can… you have to have enough patients so that it justifies the staffing you’re going to have for all those wraparound services. It’s just not feasible.”
Eric Lewis, the CEO of OMC, said the MAT clinic and the mental health facility, which is not yet funded but planned to be built on the same grounds as Phase 2 of the project, are not only needed, but it’s much easier to find federal funding support to get them built.
“It’s really needed, and Olympic Medical Center is proud to partner with Jamestown on that. We deal with it every day. Where patients need a 7 to 14 day in-patient site treatment and we just don’t have that in Clallam or Jefferson County. So this facility will take care of that huge need. I think both of these treatment centers will make our community safer. It’s really going to save lives and get people the treatment they need and brings in, you know, not only new services but it brings in new federal dollars. The federal government is cutting back on some things that were experiencing and Sequim, with our site neutral cuts, but the federal government is willing to make investments in addiction services for opioids and Mental Health Services. With Jamestown, OMC and Jefferson Healthcare and others, Peninsula Behavioral Health, partnering together. We can really improve our Health Care system and give people much needed hope.”
Simcosky pointed out during the discussion that although he has publicly said repeatedly that he welcomes calls and emails from anyone to address concerns about the MAT facility, he has heard from only one person, a Sequim business owner.
Photo by Amanda Bacon: Simcosky, Burkhardt and Lewis address members of the Chamber.