$150 million in promised upgrades at former Stevens Hospital begin

When Swedish Health Services took over management of the former Stevens Hospital last year, the Seattle-based health care organization promised to make $150 million in improvements within a decade.

Now, plans for some of the major pieces of that expansion at the Edmonds hospital are under way, including a new emergency room, an expanded cancer center and upgrades to its baby delivery department.

Construction on the first project, a $6 million building for patients to get chemotherapy, is scheduled to begin next month.

The new 16,000-square-foot building is expected to open in February, said David Jaffe, interim administrative officer at Swedish/Edmonds.

“Right now, we’re limited in terms of space in our existing cancer center,” he said.

The new building will be part of the Swedish Cancer Institute on the hospital campus, where patients received 322 chemotherapy treatments last year.

Preparations also are under way for building a new emergency room, which likely will be connected to the current hospital building.

A new emergency room was at the top of the list of improvements being considered at the Edmonds hospital when Swedish took over its day-to-day operation Sept. 1 last year.

Swedish is paying the public hospital district $600,000 a month in lease payments.

Last year, Swedish officials said building a new emergency room could cost $60 million and take two years or more to complete.

Jaffe said the hospital has selected an architectural firm to work on development of a new emergency room, but final details, including its cost and size, won’t be announced for several months.

“Our emergency room is clearly one of our most pressing needs,” Jaffe said.

For years, hospital officials have said that the current emergency room needs to be expanded. It was designed to treat about 25,000 patients, and now treats about 45,000 patients a year.

Final planning and construction will take about two and a half years. When it opens, it would have the capacity to treat about 60,000 patients a year.

The new emergency department would add even more competition to an already competitive health care market in Snohomish County.

Cascade Valley Hospital in Arlington opened a new emergency room last year as part of a new 40,000-square-foot, two-story building.

A new emergency department was a key element in a new $460 million medical tower that Providence Regional Medical Center Everett opened in June.

And Swedish Health Services opened a new satellite emergency room as part of a $30 million medical building at 128th Street SE in February called Swedish/Mill Creek.

Yet the new satellite emergency room has not significantly decreased the number of patients coming to Edmonds, even though hospital officials initially thought it might.

The number of hospital patients treated at Swedish/Edmonds between April and June this year is about the same as last year. In March, the hospital treated 3,977 patients, 173 more than during the previous year.

The hospital also plans an expansion of its baby delivery unit, where 1,100 babies are born each year. The expansion will allow that number to double after improvements are completed in about 30 months, Jaffe said.

The hospital now has 13 birthing rooms. The new unit could take up an entire floor of the hospital.

“We want to give the community an enhanced setting to have their babies,” Jaffe said.

Eight more intensive-care beds will be added to the hospital over the next several months.

And the hospital hopes to have a new electronic medical record system installed by fall 2012.

It will allow doctors and nurses to access patient records at any hospital that uses the same record keeping system, locally or nationally. This can be especially helpful in an emergency, cutting the time it takes for diagnosis and treatment.

One of the immediate changes at the hospital will be using an outdoor seating area as the home for a series of free outdoor summer movies. The first, “Toy Story,” will be shown Aug. 12, beginning about 8:30 p.m.

“We just want the community to have a great time,” Jaffe said.

Other expected building improvements at the hospital include the addition of a bistro, retail space and perhaps even a yoga studio, he said.

If this sounds a little like some of amenities included in Swedish’s new hospital in Issaquah, it might be because Jaffe previously worked as a senior adviser on that building project.

“What we’re hoping to do is draw on some of the concepts and elements (from that building) and incorporate them proportionally here,” he said.

Sharon Salyer: 425-3399-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.