Virginia Mason Franciscan Health announced Tuesday that it plans to open a new hybrid emergency room and urgent care facility at its Port Orchard campus on South Kitsap Boulevard. 

Currently, VMFH offers only urgent care and other specialty services at the Port Orchard site. Creating the dual purpose facility, the health care providers say, will vastly improve care throughout the West Sound amid a shortage of providers.

“This is a significant step in our ongoing efforts to improve access to needed care across Kitsap County and beyond,” Ketul J. Patel, CEO of VMFH, said in a statement. “The hybrid ED/urgent care model is one great example of how we can improve our patient experience, getting patients to the right level of care while also reducing costs, and alleviating some strain on our hospitals.” 

Construction of the facility is set to begin this summer and wrap up next year. When finished, it will be open 24/7 and equipped with onsite lab equipment and a radiology suite with X-ray and multi-slice CT scanners. Patients can expect walk-in convenience and shorter wait times compared to a traditional emergency room visit, VMFH said.  

This will be the second facility of its kind in Kitsap. A similar facility is under construction on Kitsap Way in Bremerton. VMFH expects it to open early next year. 

Both were created through a partnership with Intuitive Health, a Dallas-based medical group. Each facility will be equipped like a transitional emergency department, VMFH said. They will be staffed by doctors and nurses and accommodate ambulance drop-offs. 

Patients arriving at either facility will be examined and triaged into either emergent or urgent care. VMFH says that will reduce confusion for patients about where to go during an emergency, and get them appropriate care at reduced costs.

Emergency departments across the country continue to experience overuse, VMFH says, impacting care for those in need and increasing patients’ costs. That includes St. Michael Medical Center in Silverdale. As the lone emergency room in the county, SMMC says it has one of the busiests ERs in Washington, with over 80,000 annual visits. 

“By collaborating on innovative, community-based solutions, like the Port Orchard hybrid ED/urgent care clinic,” said SMMC President Chad Melton,  “we are able to expand access to care that best fits patient needs, while preserving hospital emergency department capacity for the most serious conditions and injuries.”

Conor Wilson is a Murrow News fellow, reporting for the Kitsap Sun and Gig Harbor Now, a nonprofit newsroom based in Gig Harbor, through a program managed by Washington State University.