Trios Health employees bid farewell to Family Birth Center on Auburn campus

Trios Health CEO John Solheim and Birth Center Director Stephanie Roderick open the time capsule that was hidden on the KGH campus in 1989.

Current and former Trios Health employees gathered Tuesday, March 22, at the Family Birth Center on the Auburn campus to say their goodbyes, with Trios’ new birth center opening next week on the Trios Southridge Hospital campus.

The group spent much of the time reminiscing about their time and memories of the 70-year-old facility. Some were born there, or gave birth to their children there, and spent years tending to new mothers there.

“As many of us here today, we had a period in our lives when this campus was our home away from home”, said Melissa Wilson, Family Birth Center Supervisor. “It’s a bittersweet feeling to leave a cherished place like this behind. This place had a soul that made our community feel safe, cared for and welcomed.”

A time capsule hidden on the campus on March 11, 1989, was also opened. It contained several newspaper clippings, pictures from events at Kennewick General Hospital over the years, and a letter written to “future KGH employees,” among other items.

“Today, we honored the facility that has allowed excellent care for 70 years and to honor the citizens of Kennewick for founding and establishing KGH,” said John Solheim, Trios Health Chief Executive Officer. “It took a tremendous effort and financial commitment to get started, and I am sure if they were here today, they would be proud of what has been accomplished in this facility.”

The current Family Birth Center on Auburn Street, located within the original Kennewick General Hospital that opened in 1952, will close its doors permanently on March 29, and all services will be transitioned to the Trios Southridge Hospital campus, located at 3810 Plaza Way in Kennewick, on March 29 at 7 a.m.

“We are excited to relocate our Family Birth Center from its current location at our previous campus on Auburn Street to our new hospital, which opened in 2014,” Solheim said. “We are taking another exciting step in advancing our mission of Making Communities Healthier, and are grateful for LifePoint Health’s substantial investment in our organization and community through this project.”

A ribbon cutting will be held tomorrow on Wednesday, March 23, at 4:30 p.m. to celebrate the new Trios Birth Center. Public Tours of the Trios Birth Center will be offered following the ribbon cutting, from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Attendees are asked to enter through Entrance B of the Trios Southridge Campus and must wear masks, be screened upon entry and follow all COVID-19 prevention protocols.

The new Trios Birth Center construction began in February 2021. The approximately 23,376 square foot, two-story addition was constructed above the first floor surgery department and connected at the second and third floors of the current Southridge hospital, with approximately 9,970 of existing space at the Southridge campus being renovated for the project. The new space accommodates the current birth center and Special Care Nursery and brings all of Trios’ hospital services under one roof.

“It is a big improvement to relocate our birth center to a growing area in Kennewick on our existing Southridge campus and hospital building, adding convenience to access all of our hospital services in one place for our patients and bringing greater support for patients and staff as we move to one site,” Solheim said. “This plan also allows us to save expenses by not duplicating the same support services across two hospital campuses. We are excited to open the doors to our new birth center and welcome families and babies on the Southridge campus in the coming days.”

The birth center addition includes two dedicated rooms for Caesarean Section deliveries, six Labor, Delivery, Recovery and Postpartum (LDRP) rooms, and a 10-bed Critical Care Nursery. Eleven existing beds on the medical/surgical floor were also converted to postpartum beds. The 11 converted beds are being relocated to the third floor of the Southridge hospital with an ongoing expansion that will continue after the new birth center opens next week. The Southridge hospital’s licensed bed count now jumps from 74 to 111 with the completion of the project, but the overall Trios bed count did not change with 37 beds having been relocated from the Auburn campus to the Southridge campus.

Construction was completed by Layton Construction, who will continue to remain on site to complete the medical/surgical expansion, which is expected to be complete in late July 2022.

The new Trios Birth Center was made possible by a nearly $22 million investment from LifePoint Health, which has also invested another $6 million for the medical/surgical expansion project.