It didn’t take long.
The first patient to be treated at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett’s new emergency department arrived at 5:10 a.m. Tuesday, just 10 minutes after officially opening its doors for business. He had abdominal pain.
The emergency department, located on the ground floor of the hospital’s $460 million medical tower, was the first service to open in the new 12-story building, the tallest in Snohomish County.
At 7:40 a.m., Kaylee O’Connell, 21, brought her 6-month old son, Micah, to the emergency room to be treated for vomiting and diarrhea.
Several hours later, Micah was still being monitored by a nurse, but was contentedly sitting on his mother’s lap and smiling as visitors entered the room.
Two other hospital services also opened Tuesday: critical care and the units for diagnosing and treating people with heart problems.
The movement of services between the existing Colby Campus building in north Everett and the new medical tower next door has been planned for more than two years to help ensure a smooth transition for patients and employees, said Preston Simmons, the hospital’s chief operating officer.
Simmons spent Monday night sleeping in his office so he could be among the first employees to arrive on site about 4 a.m. Tuesday, in preparation for the building’s official opening.
Many other staff arrived just as early, including the hospital’s chief executive, Dave Brooks, and Dr. Enrique Enguidanos, medical director of the emergency room.
Doctors, nurses and other staff arrived bright and early.
“Everybody’s smiling,” Brooks said.
A command center, staffed 24 hours a day, will continue to function for the next two weeks to help sort out any glitches that arise in the new building.
“They’re making sure there are no hiccups; it’s not just the opening of a building, it’s a clinical service,” Brooks said. “We can’t make any mistakes. It has to be flawless.”
There were some snags with phone lines, documents being sent to the wrong printer, and a few glitches with computers, but no big, unanticipated problems, Simmons said.
Providence had consulted with other hospitals that had made similar moves into new buildings to help smooth the way with its transition to the medical tower, Brooks said.
The plan is to try discharge patients from the old Colby Campus hospital building and admit patients into the new medical tower, to minimize transferring patients between the two buildings, Simmons said.
In June, between 75 and 105 people are admitted to the hospital each day.
However, it’s possible that some of the 37 patients in the hospital’s intensive care unit in the old Colby Campus building might have to be transferred to the medical tower by week’s end, he said.
One of the next big changes will be the closing of the hospital’s Pacific Avenue emergency department at 5 a.m. Thursday.
Surgical units in the Colby building will move into the medical tower Friday and Monday.
The cardiac, surgical recovery and remaining patient rooms will be opened starting Monday morning, Simmons said.
“I’ve been involved in several major moves before,” Simmons said. “This is probably the most well prepared one I’ve seen.
“For this magnitude of project, it’s gone really, really smoothly.”
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.
ER closing
Providence Regional Medical Center Everett’s emergency room at 916 Pacific Ave. is scheduled to close at 5 a.m. Thursday.
The hospital’s emergency department will be consolidated on the ground floor of its new medical tower at 1700 13th St., which opened on Tuesday.
For the first week after the closure of the Pacific Avenue emergency room, the hospital will have an ambulance parked out front. Crews will hand out maps to direct people to the new emergency room.
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