Statement from MultiCare on Sunstone 

June 6, 2020 

A member of our Behavioral Health family passed away in April. James Simpson, a 
mental health technician at our Sunstone Youth Treatment Center in Burien, had served 
at that facility for eight months. This news has been devastating to our teams and to the 
people who worked with James each day. We appreciate his contribution to our 
organization and to ensuring the patients at Sunstone were well cared for. Our hearts go 
out to James’ family and friends. 

For MultiCare, there’s no higher priority than the safety of our patients and staff. All 
MultiCare employees providing clinical care, including those at our residential behavioral 
health center in Burien, have had and continue to have the appropriate personal 
protective equipment (PPE) they need to do their jobs safely. Sunstone is a critical 
resource for our community, helping teens through psychiatric crisis. We have worked 
hard to protect patients and staff so that the vital services this facility provides can be 
available to families in need.  

MultiCare took early and aggressive steps to prevent the spread of the virus at the 
residential behavioral health center. This includes early access to PPE, sanitizer, training 
for staff and testing. We are following World Health Organization and Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, which recommend N95 masks for 
aerosolizing procedures. Aerosolizing procedures include intubations and deep 
suctioning – procedures that do not occur at the residential behavioral health center. 
Staff received training from MultiCare’s infection prevention team, and supplies are 
readily available. The facility always had masks and gloves, we added gowns and face 
shields on March 26.  

This facility is following droplet precautions (gown, gloves, mask and face shield) and our 
conservation practices. Gloves are available in all sizes including extra-large. Sunstone’s 
administration was never informed of any issues related to size of gloves or other PPE. 
There’s a worldwide shortage of PPE and MultiCare is not immune to that. The 
organization has sourced appropriate PPE from multiple companies and while 
sometimes the PPE looks different from the examples in the training materials, it all 
meets our rigorous standards. Staff education on COVID-19 began on March 2 and all 
staff have been instructed in proper disposal of PPE in an area off limits to patients.  

We invited King County Public Health to come and evaluate the residential behavioral 
health center’s practices in April and May to make recommendations for improvement. In 
both months, King County Public Health commended the safety measures in place at 
Sunstone. The only recommendation was a suggestion to possibly include more signage, 
which MultiCare did.  

On March 25, 2020 we learned that a staff member tested positive for COVID-19. That 
day, we alerted employees and families via email. We also talked about it at the daily 
safety huddles that all staff attend. Sunstone immediately isolated suspected cases of 
COVID-19 and followed guidance for cohorting positive patients and have separate 
programs for positive and negative patients.  
Our direction to staff has always been to stay home when sick, and that has not 
changed during this pandemic. We follow CDC guidance for health care workers. All of 
our employees are provided paid time off to use when they are sick and we offer health 
insurance to all of our employees.  

Prior to each shift, employees are required to attest that they do not have any symptoms 
and are screened for a fever. If an employee has a fever, they are immediately sent home 
and instructed to follow up with a health care provider. This process was followed with 
James Simpson. 

Visitor restrictions were put in place in early March to protect patients and staff as we 
cannot screen the people that patients may encounter. We have worked closely with 
patients’ families and guardians and they have been understanding - and we are 
supporting video visits and phone calls to ensure patients are able to stay connected to 
their support systems. MultiCare has also increased staffing to support the residential 
behavioral health center.  

It’s important to note that Sunstone is a residential facility and not a hospital. Patients in 
medical hospitals are treated in their rooms and rarely leave that environment. In 
behavioral health facilities, patients receive much of their treatment in the general milieu 
outside of their rooms, and in group and individual treatment situations. They are often 
interacting with others, which increases the potential for transmission of the virus. 
Patients in these environments are in psychiatric crisis and therefore not consistently 
compliant with safety measures.