Indigenous Pact Chehalis Hope & Healing Clinic / šo’ּk’ʷalis-n
Indigenous Pact Chehalis Hope & Healing Clinic
A Modular Clinic Built for an Urgent Need
CONTEXT & MISSION
Health Equity, One Community at a Time
Indigenous Pact, a tribal healthcare consultancy, has set itself an ambitious goal: closing the health equity gap for American Indian and Alaska Native communities within a single generation. Delivering on that goal means getting essential care into places the traditional healthcare system has historically underserved, often rural, often tribal, and often facing the kind of workforce and construction constraints that can stall a project for years. To meet that challenge in western Washington, Indigenous Pact brought together BA and manufacturer Boldt to build a freestanding specialty clinic addressing one of the most urgent public health crises in Indian Country: opioid use disorder.
The clinic takes its name from the Chehalis language: šo'ḵ'alis-n, meaning "Turning Around." It's a fitting name for a facility built around a person-first, trauma-informed philosophy, one where a patient's individual history and circumstances shape their care.
BUILT DIFFERENTLY
Manufactured Off-Site, Built to Last
Rather than pursue a traditional ground-up build, the team turned to permanent modular construction, assembling the roughly 6,400-square-foot clinic from 12 steel-framed modules manufactured at Boldt's production facility and shipped to the Tumwater site for final assembly. The choice wasn't about cutting corners: these modules are engineered to the same durability standards as a conventional building and finished with matching exterior materials, so the clinic stands as a permanent piece of the community rather than a temporary structure.
The real advantage showed up in the calendar. Manufacturing all 12 modules took roughly five weeks, and the project's overall design-to-construction timeline came in at around 8 months, less than half of what a comparable ground-up facility would typically require. For a population facing an active opioid crisis, and for a project location with a limited rural construction workforce to draw from, that speed was critical.
INSIDE THE CLINIC
Designed Around the Rhythm of Care
The finished building is organized around how patients and staff actually move through a day of treatment: a welcoming reception area up front, private exam and treatment rooms, dedicated group therapy space, and an on-site urinalysis lab to support clinical monitoring, all balanced against the practical needs of running a clinic, staff work and break areas filled with natural light, restrooms for patients and staff alike, and enough storage and utility space to keep the operation running smoothly behind the scenes.
CARE DESIGNED AROUND THE PATIENT
Meeting People Where They Are
Clinically, the facility supports medication-assisted treatment alongside behavioral health therapy, with each patient's plan, including relapse-prevention strategies, built around their specific circumstances rather than a one-size-fits-all protocol. Recognizing that access is often the biggest barrier to sustained recovery, particularly in a rural service area, the clinic also offers transportation assistance and telehealth options so that ongoing care doesn't depend entirely on a patient's ability to physically reach the building. The interior spaces were designed with that same sensitivity in mind, aiming for an environment that feels calm and secure enough for patients to bring family members along for support.
TIMELINE & IMPACT
From Groundbreaking to First Patient in Under a Year
Construction broke ground in June 2023, and the clinic welcomed its first patient in March 2024, a fast turnaround made possible by the modular delivery model. For Indigenous Pact, the clinic represents one instance of a broader strategy: a repeatable, faster-to-deploy model for specialty care clinics that the organization can bring to other underserved tribal and rural communities as it works toward its longer-term health equity goals.
