POULSBO – A public hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. Feb. 21 in Poulsbo City Hall on CHI Franciscan Health’s proposal to move Harrison Medical Center from Bremerton to an expanded Silverdale campus.

Specifically, the hearing — conducted by the state Department of Health – is on CHI Franciscan’s application for Certificate of Need, a determination by state health officials that the move is necessary.

CHI Franciscan Health wants to relocate Harrison from its aging site in Bremerton to the newer site in more centralized Silverdale. The relocation would be completed in two phases at a total cost of $484.6 million. A decision on the certificate of need is expected on April 17, according to the review notice.

All told, Harrison Medical Center is licensed for a total of 347 beds, according to an Aug. 24 letter to the state from Richard Petrich, CHI Franciscan’s vice president of planning and business development. The Bremerton site currently has 253 inpatient beds, the Silverdale site has 94, of which 24 are for neonatal patients. If the relocation proceeds as planned, all inpatient beds and services will be relocated from Bremerton to Silverdale.

“This project will also result in our open heart surgery and elective PCI programs being relocated from the Bremerton campus to the Silverdale campus,” Petrich wrote. PCI is the abbreviation for percutaneous coronary intervention, a non-surgical procedure used to treat narrowing of the coronary arteries of the heart.

Residents can comment at the meeting or in advance in writing. Send to Certificate of Need Program, Mail Stop 47852, Olympia, WA 98504-7852. For more information, call Karen Nidermayer, 360-236-2957, or go to www.doh.wa.gov/hsqa/FSL/certneed/.