OLYMPIA — Homeless people discharged from Providence St. Peter Hospital will now have a safe place at Drexel House to fully recover while receiving continued medical care.
Two medical respite beds have opened at Drexel House, an 86-unit permanent housing facility and emergency shelter program for 16 men that is operated by Catholic Community Services of Western Washington.
The goal of the partnership between the hospital and Drexel House is reducing hospital readmissions and freeing up much-needed hospital beds, according to a news release.
“We are so grateful and excited to offer beds at Drexel House, which helps us achieve our larger mission of serving others in need,” said Mike Curry, CCS Southwest Region director. “This powerful partnership not only benefits the hospital and the people in need of healing but is very valuable for our entire community.”
The one-year pilot program at Drexel House was approved by the Catholic Healthcare Collaboration, a partnership of the Archdiocese of Seattle, Catholic Community Services/Catholic Housing Services, PeaceHealth, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health and Providence Swedish. The collaboration is providing funding for the program.
Typically, an acute-care patient discharged from the hospital returns home with a discharge plan that calls for differing levels of follow-up care; a simple discharge plan can quickly be complicated by homelessness, according to the release. Without a safe place to recover and fully heal, homeless patients may have to be hospitalized again.
In Thurston County, a severe shortage of shelter beds combined with high hospital occupancy rates, “compound an already overloaded system,” the release said.
The new medical respite beds at Drexel House “will create an additional resource for the hospital to discharge unhoused individuals in an appropriate recovery environment and give them the resources toward a pathway out of homelessness,” said Darin Goss, chief executive of Providence Swedish South Puget Sound.
Patients discharged from Providence St. Peter to a bed at Drexel House will receive medical care from Providence Sound Home Care. The goal is recovery and connecting the patient to a primary care provider for ongoing health care. Patients will also receive case management services from the Drexel House team, focused on an individual’s holistic needs, including permanent supportive housing, according to the news release.
The new partnership builds on an alliance of Providence Swedish, MultiCare Capital Medical Center, Thurston County Public Health and Social Services and Interfaith Works that was formed in August 2021. Through that alliance, part of the Interfaith Works Restorative Experience for a Safer Transition (REST) program, nearly 100 patients have been discharged to respite beds and the four beds dedicated to St. Peter patients have been continuously full, according to the news release.
“Community partnerships like these are how society’s toughest challenges are solved,” Goss said. “We look forward to this program helping us address the appropriate care for our vulnerable patients being discharged, as well as helping us with our hospital capacity constraints.”