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Western State Hospital tells Lakewood advisory committee how it alerts police and neighbors when patients go missing
Summary
Hospital leaders described immediate, multi-channel notification procedures for unauthorized patient leaves and detailed a new therapeutic, secure 350-bed hospital due in 2028. Residents pressed for clearer community alerts; staff said law enforcement and local schools are notified immediately.
Western State Hospital leaders told the Lakewood Safety Advisory Committee on Thursday that the hospital triggers immediate internal and external notifications when a patient is discovered missing and that a new hospital under construction is being designed to reduce both the institutional feel and the likelihood of escapes.
"First, know that every patient that is at Western State Hospital is court ordered to be there," Linda Silva, deputy CEO for the Gage Center of Excellence, said in the committee meeting. She explained that when a civil patient fails to return from an authorized leave, it is classified as an "unauthorized leave" (UL); when a forensic patient without privileges is absent, it is treated as an "escape." Both incidents, she said, prompt immediate action under state law.
Silva said the hospital’s command-and-control center is the hub for notifications: staff pass along patient names, clothing descriptions, last-seen locations and directions of travel, and the control center simultaneously notifies local law enforcement (Lakewood Police Department, Steilacoom Police Department and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office), South Sound 911, on-duty administrators and the hospital’s security teams. She also cited the Department of Social and Health Services victim-witness notification program for cases where enrolling victims require alerts.
Dave Chipchase, a hospital quality manager, described the new 350-bed facility as a "walk-in-the-park" therapeutic design intended to feel less institutional while remaining secure. He said courtyards will be enclosed by surrounding buildings, reducing reliance on perimeter fencing, and every patient room will be single-occupancy with private bathrooms. Chipchase said the state-funded campus includes a roughly 60,000-square-foot administrative building and that construction is on track for substantial completion in April 2028, with new-patient intake expected in August or September 2028. "We’re gonna be done in 2028 in April time frame," he said.
On resident concerns about community notifications, a neighbor told the committee that "usually, when there's an escape or something, we don't get that message" and that people often learn about incidents from news coverage rather than direct alerts. Silva and Chipchase acknowledged the gap and said notifications to law enforcement are immediate and that the hospital would explore community-facing options such as emergency-notification systems already used for fires (referred to at the meeting as a "code-red" style alert). "It's all in tandem," Silva said, describing parallel internal and external notification streams.
Hospital staff gave several operational details requested by committee members: they said the forensic center has had few escapes in the past three to five years, that civil unauthorized leaves numbered roughly three to four over the past year, and that "over 90 percent" of missing patients are recovered though no exact recovery count was provided.
Chipchase and Silva said the hospital participates in cross-facility lessons-learned meetings with other state hospitals and has revised training and memos after security incidents elsewhere. They also emphasized that certification by agencies such as the state fire marshal and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will follow occupancy and that clinical and operational certification (not only building completion) is required before the hospital reaches full operational status.
The committee asked the hospital to consider clearer neighborhood notifications and to work with city emergency management on options. Committee members agreed to compile any safety observations they collect for referral to the city council and the hospital’s leadership. The advisory committee also noted Sgt. John Frazier from the marine safety unit will speak at a future meeting about lake-area safety concerns raised by residents.
What’s next: hospital leaders invited continued feedback from the advisory committee and said they will take neighborhood-notification suggestions back to their control center and emergency-management partners.
