A $38 million building under construction at Everett Community College will be the new home for the campus’ health sciences programs and a nonprofit medical clinic that will serve the general public.
The three-story, 72,000-square-foot building can be seen from Broadway. Construction is expected to be finished by the end of February.
More than 500 students are enrolled in the college’s health sciences programs pursuing degrees in specialties such as medical assisting, nursing and Spanish medical interpreters. Classes are expected to begin in the new building on April 1, the start of spring quarter.
The nonprofit Providence Everett Healthcare Clinic, which is leasing 6,500 square feet on the building’s ground floor, is expected to open in early June.
The clinic will move from a shopping center directly across Broadway, where it first opened in 2004.
The Providence clinic is thought to be the only medical clinic open to the general public on a community college campus in Washington.
The clinic currently serves about 200 patients a week. The goal by the end of next year is to increase that to 400 to 500 patients a week, said Dr. Marcia Wharton, the clinic’s medical director.
The medical clinic is open to anyone but targets the uninsured, low-income children and adults and Medicare and Medicaid patients. The clinic has 5,600 patients, about a third of whom are children.
EvCC nursing students currently have clinical rotations, where they observe the care of patients, at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett.
Students pursuing degrees as medical assistants are expected to begin training at the Providence clinic when it opens at EvCC.
The college came to an agreement on having the medical clinic on campus as the final design plans for the new building were being completed, said Pat Sisneros, vice president of college services.
“It made a lot of sense, having this opportunity for students to intern in the clinic,” Sisneros said.
In addition to the clinic, the building’s first floor will have general purpose classrooms. The second floor will have additional classrooms and skills laboratories.
One of the labs will house sophisticated mannequins, costing up to $90,000, which can mimic health problems so that students can learn how to treat patients.
Faculty offices will be on the building’s second and third floors.
“The best feature of this building is a skylight and a tremendous amount of natural light that comes into the building,” Sisneros said.
Students pursing health science degrees are now housed in a set of 50-year-old buildings. “It’s one of the best programs in the state, but the facility they’re currently in makes it more challenging.”
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com
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