FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 10, 2002
Providence St. Peter Hospital Celebrates Groundbreaking Milestones
OLYMPIA—Providence St. Peter Hospital is celebrating two milestones this month: the past and the future. While the hospital commemorates its 115th anniversary, digging will begin to create the foundation for a new 100,000-square-foot addition.
In 1887, the Sisters of Providence welcomed 13 patients as the first St. Peter Hospital opened its doors on what is today the state Capitol grounds in Olympia. Then in 1924, the Sisters moved into the second St. Peter Hospital, a new brick structure on Sherman Street. In 1971, the community celebrated the opening of a new Providence St. Peter Hospital on Lilly Road. By 2004, the hospital will have completed a $63.3 million expansion.
"With the significant changes this expansion will bring to our campus and community, we’re proud to call it the ‘fourth new St. Peter Hospital,’" said Scott Bond, Providence St. Peter Hospital chief executive officer.
Though some interior modifications were already completed in 2001, January 2002 is the milestone that marks the beginning of the exterior construction projects, including a new emergency department, which will be three times the size of the existing facility.
"This expansion is a great investment for the health of this community, Bond said. "We will have additional space to accommodate growing patient demand and new high-tech equipment."
In 2001, the emergency department had 55,553 patient visits, nearly an 18 percent increase from the previous year. The hospital now has the fifth busiest single-campus emergency department in Washington and expects to see approximately 58,000 patients this year.
The new emergency department will feature 39 private patient rooms, a specially equipped pediatric room, four women’s health rooms, two major trauma rooms, a crisis services unit, six cardiac and stroke rooms with new equipment, and a rooftop helipad.
Computerized patient tracking, three private triage booths and a new family waiting area will help alleviate wait times and provide more comfortable space for patients, families and staff.
A new laboratory will be built on the second floor of the emergency department addition. The emergency/lab addition project cost, estimated at $24.7 million, is part of the hospital’s Campus Renewal expansion project, a $63.3 million endeavor.
Other Campus Renewal construction projects include new additions to the diagnostic imaging department, and medical and surgical short stay units. The expansion also includes extensive upgrades to the patient care tower infrastructure, the addition of two new cardiac catheterization labs and construction of a 400-stall parking garage.
Providence St. Peter Foundation has already contributed $1 million to the project, helping fund the cardiac catheterization lab construction and the purchase of new equipment for the catheterization labs. The new cardiac catheterization labs opened in December 2001.
Eighty percent of the Campus Renewal project will be financed through long-term debt secured by the Providence Health System and Providence St. Peter Hospital. The remainder will come from the sale of the Providence St. Peter Hospital dialysis program and the Providence St. Peter Hospital capital budget.
Additional fund-raising support from the community will be needed. Providence St. Peter Foundation is completing a fund-raising analysis for Campus Renewal projects.
Providence St. Peter Hospital, founded by the Sisters of Providence in 1887, is a not-for-profit 390-bed hospital serving the five-county South Sound region with comprehensive medical, surgical and mental health services.
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