MONROE — Now it’s official. A ceremony scheduled Monday afternoon will formally mark the change in both name and business affiliation for Valley General Hospital.
The Monroe hospital will now be known as EvergreenHealth Monroe. It also signifies the final step in a business agreement to make the hospital part of Kirkland-based EvergreenHealth.
The Monroe hospital is joining a health care organization with nearly 4,000 full- and part-time employees. Its 278-bed tax-supported hospital, EvergreenHealth Medical Center, is located on its Kirkland campus. The organization also operates urgent and primary care facilities in Canyon Park, Duvall, Kenmore, Redmond, Sammamish and Woodinville.
Evergreen plans to begin offering new services this year in Monroe, said Bob Malte, chief executive for EvergreenHealth. These include a 24-hour nurse hot line; 3-D mammography services provided in a van that will periodically make trips to Monroe and Sultan this spring; and hiring an additional obstetrician to provide prenatal services, he said. The organization also is recruiting at least two more primary care physicians to work in east Snohomish County, Malte said.
The Monroe and Kirkland emergency rooms will be more integrated with technology so “when a person goes to the Monroe emergency department or to Kirkland or Redmond, they can be confident of the same service,” Malte said.
Monroe physicians will be able to use telemedicine services, or a television-like connection using the Internet, so that specialists at other EvergreenHealth sites can confer with doctors in Monroe. Specialists such as neurologists and cardiologists are scheduled to be available via the telemedicine link by year’s end, he said.
A decision on whether to restart baby delivery services in Monroe, which ended in 2011, is expected later this year.
Malte said he plans to launch a community advisory group in Monroe to serve as advisers to the hospital board and management.
The Monroe hospital’s affiliation with EvergreenHealth follows years of financial instability. In 2013, Valley General lost $6 million. Last year’s losses were far smaller, $443,000, helped in part by voter approval in 2013 of a tax increase from 14 cents to 37 cents per $1,000 of assessed property valuation.
This year, the Monroe hospital is projecting a net operating profit of $1 million, which will be used to invest in other hospital programs, said Kay Taylor, an EvergreenHealth spokeswoman.
The money will be used to make sure “that facility is there for the long haul and that technology gets added as well,” Malte said.
Fairfax Hospital, which operates an in-patient mental health facility in Kirkland, will open a 34-bed adult psychiatric unit in the Monroe hospital by fall. The $2.4 million unit is to offer programs for geriatric patients, dual-diagnosis patients such as those with addiction and psychiatric problems and patients either voluntarily or involuntarily hospitalized for psychiatric treatment. That unit is expected to employ 50 people.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.
Event
An event to mark the formal name change of Valley General Hospital and its affiliation with EvergreenHealth in Kirkland is scheduled from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. March 2 in the Monroe hospital’s lobby. The hospital is at 14701 179th Ave. S.E.
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