Harrison Medical Center marks its centennial as relocation to Silverdale nears
As the Great War ground to a close in Europe in 1918, another deadly force "struck a vicious blow at Bremerton."
The global influenza epidemic devastated the shipyard town, sickening hundreds. A makeshift hospital was organized in the First Methodist Church, and the ill and dying filled hallways, pews and aisles. Among the volunteer nurses tending to patients at the church was Angie Harrison, a relative newcomer to the community.
A $600,000 fundraising drive helped finance the $3.2 million, 150-bed complex, which opened on Cherry Avenue in 1965, trumpeted as a "giant stride forward" for health care in the county. In the decades that followed, Harrison would keep expanding its East Bremerton facility while building a network of satellite offices from Belfair to Bainbridge Island. The system treats more than 90,000 patients a year, according to CHI Franciscan.
Unprecedented change
Independent for its first 95 years, Harrison joined Tacoma-based CHI Franciscan Health in 2013. The affiliation agreement helped ensure Harrison's long-term stability while providing access to the capital it needed to pursue a full-scale hospital in Silverdale. Plans for the relocation — long in the works — were formally announced a year later.
The project stoked excitement and angst. Many hailed the prospect of a modern, centralized hospital and the massive capital investment in the county (perhaps the largest commercial project in Kitsap history). Others, including city officials, worried the move would cut off vulnerable Bremerton patients from health care services, and some questioned Harrison's secular status within a Catholic system.
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The state approved a certificate of need for the project last year, largely quieting the debate. The nine-story hospital tower rising above Myhre Road erases any doubt of Harrison's pivot to Silverdale, while plans are still in place for a West Bremerton clinic slated to open in 2020.
At the centennial event Thursday, which followed events recognizing employees, CHI Franciscan executives said the capital projects are a continuance of Harrison's dedication to West Sound patients.
"For us, it's about making sure we have the best services in the region," Patel said.
U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Gig Harbor) echoed those sentiments in his remarks.
"This is a big deal for our region," Kilmer said. "... This isn't about a building, as impressive as that building is, it's about the incredible caregivers here in Kitsap County who are committed to the health and wellness of people in this community, it's about a bunch of great jobs, and it's about vital care. And I think the Harrisons would be awfully proud of that."
"This was the first association between the name Harrison and hospitals in the city," the East Bremerton News later remarked.
A new hospital opened in the city that year and Angie and her husband, Benjamin, a hardware store owner, would become its majority shareholders and biggest boosters.
A century later, the Harrison name remains inextricably linked with healthcare on the Kitsap Peninsula, even as the medical center navigates the most ambitious reorganization in its long history. As civic leaders feted Harrison Medical Center and parent company CHI Franciscan Health during a private centennial celebration Thursday in Silverdale, the steel-and-concrete skeleton of a nine-story hospital tower loomed above, signalling the sweeping changes to come.
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"When you look behind you and see all the building that's happening, we're here developing a campus for the next 100 years, if not longer," CHI Franciscan CEO Ketul Patel told the crowd of 200 that gathered on the top floor of a parking garage built to serve the expanded Harrison Silverdale complex.
The $500 million Silverdale hospital is scheduled to open in 2020. Harrison's hospital in East Bremerton — its flagship facility since the 1960s — will close.
Bremerton Mayor Greg Wheeler, who was critical of the relocation project during his campaign last year, struck a conciliatory tone at the celebration Thursday.
"Harrison is going to be a big part of our lives in Bremerton, and that's not going to change," Wheeler said. "... we are going to close the door and we are going to open another."
"It's all for the good of the community," County Commissioner Ed Wolfe added in his remarks. "This is not just going to serve Central Kitsap, it's going to serve four counties."
Deep roots
Harrison opened its doors for the first time in 1918 at the corner of Eighth Street and Chester Avenue, in the heart of Bremerton. Originally called City General Hospital, the humble medical center was later renamed Olympic Hospital and finally became Harrison Memorial Hospital in 1942 as it reorganized as a nonprofit, according to "Kitsap County: A History," published by the Kitsap County Historical Society.
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Benjamin Harrison, who guided the organization through its early years, bequeathed his estate to the hospital.
"It is my desire that Harrison Memorial Hospital shall serve humanity and shall alleviate the pain and suffering of mankind," Benjamin wrote in his will.
The move to Silverdale in 2020 won't mark the first time Harrison has relocated in order to expand in modernize. As the 1960s dawned, the hospital was stretching to serve the region from an outdated building in West Bremerton. The Harrison board bought seven acres in East Bremerton and made a controversial decision to switch sides of the Port Washington Narrows.
By: Tad Sooter
Source: Kitsap Sun