As union lawsuit falters, state readies Tukwila psychiatric hospital for patients

Cascade Behavioral Health facility

Washington's Department of Social and Health Services is planning to admit about 50 patients before the end of the month at a recently acquired psychiatric hospital in Tukwila. 

That's in spite of a union lawsuit seeking to stall the facility’s sale. 

Meanwhile, SEIU Healthcare 1199NW's odds of success in that lawsuit dimmed significantly last week as the judge harshly rejected the union's request for a preliminary injunction that would've temporarily blocked the sale of the former Cascade Behavioral Health facility.

Opening the hospital is important because it's part of the state's strategy for closing behavioral health bed shortfalls for people in the criminal justice system who are awaiting mental competency evaluations to stand trial. 

Providing adequate space and timely treatment for people in these circumstances is at the center of the Trueblood settlement -- a court-monitored agreement arising from a 2014 lawsuit. 

Problems complying with the settlement have left the state facing hundreds of millions of dollars of penalties.

More information here in the Washington Daily Standard