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 Providence Regional Medical Center serves residents living in a five-county region in Northwest Washington. Located in Snohomish County, which itself is projected to grow from 686,000 residents today to nearly one million by 2025, the medical center is carrying out a strategic vision to ensure that its staff, services, facilities and technology progress in pace with the community’s need.
A major referral center, the medical center supplements care available at community hospitals in outlying areas, providing lifesaving access to trauma and specialty care.
A Need for Change
Providence Regional currently serves more than 350,000 patients annually. It operates the Puget Sound’s busiest Emergency Department, with more than 105,000 visits last year conducted in facilities designed to accommodate 60,000.
It is in the Emergency Department that the most pressing signs of overcapacity can be found. Wait times are long; spaces are crowded; privacy is lacking. At its busiest times, when regular patient care spaces are occupied, some patients must be seen in “rooms” created in the corridors.
At present, Providence Regional’s medical facilities are split between two campuses; patients often have to travel or be transported between the sites to receive the care they need. Many of the buildings used for patient care and administration are several decades old. The medical center’s inpatient units, most of which lack private rooms, consistently operate with every bed full. These already conspicuous problems of overcapacity and aging facilities would become unmanageable without decisive
action today.
Rising to the Challenge
Propelled by this great community need, Providence Regional has initiated the largest, most comprehensive expansion project in its history. In 2011, Providence Regional will open the doors of a new 368-bed, $500 million, state-of-the-art medical tower.
Once the tower is built and open, most acute inpatient hospital services will be consolidated at the Colby Campus. The new medical tower will provide the space and technology to enhance the award-winning clinical excellence in cardiac, vascular and stroke care and specialized treatment in cancer, neurosurgery, orthopedics and general surgery that is available today.
Inside the New Tower’s Doors
The 60,000-square-foot Emergency Department will encompass the entire ground level of the tower. A total of 79 private treatment rooms, including four trauma rooms, will be designed to maximize patient and family privacy. Advanced CT scanners and x-ray machines will give medical staff access to immediate diagnostic and therapeutic capability.
The new Diagnostic Imaging Department will span the entire first floor. This department will be filled with $25 million in the latest imaging equipment and technology, and patient service areas will be clustered in suites for optimal privacy and efficiency.
The second and third floors will house state-of-the art Surgical Services. All surgical suites will be designed to adapt for technology as it evolves in the future.
The top five floors of the tower will be dedicated to Inpatient Care. Floors 6 and 7 will house 104 acute, intensive and cardiac critical care beds. Floors 8, 9 and 10 will each feature 64 patient beds reserved for general medical or post-surgical patients.
Positive Growth
The new Medical Tower is not only a commitment to healthcare excellence in our community, it’s an investment in the economic vitality of our region. Indeed, the construction of the Medical Tower will inject nearly $500 million into our local economy over the next three years and provide up to 600 new construction jobs.
Over the long-term, the Medical Tower will serve as an economic engine in our region, helping to create 2,000 additional hospital jobs over the next fifteen years and injecting tens of millions of additional payroll dollars into our area’s economy. A ‘multiplier effect’ is expected to create a further 4,000 jobs both within and outside the region.
With a new Medical Tower, long-term economic activity generated by Providence will significantly benefit local businesses, increase tax revenue to local government and spur ongoing economic development in Everett and Snohomish County.
An Inspired Investment
Demonstrating a deep commitment to Everett and Snohomish County, Providence Regional and Providence Health & Services will provide a substantial portion of the funding for the new medical tower. This is the single largest infrastructure investment in Providence Health & Services’ five-state, 150-year history.
In tandem with these organizations, Providence General Foundation is working to engage the broader community to help to bring the new medical tower into being. The Foundation is asking community members to contribute a small, but critical portion of the project’s total cost through a major fund raising campaign.
This campaign is the largest fund raising initiative ever undertaken in Snohomish County—both in dollar amount and community impact. It will help to ensure healthcare excellence for residents for decades to come.
An Inspired Community
In the spirit of Providence, we invite you to participate in the creation of the new medical tower; to bring your heart and hands to the task of securing the health and well being of this community’s future generations.
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