Webmaster
06-17-2007, 07:59 AM
By DeAnn Rossetti
Special to The Seattle Times
Enumclaw is getting new hospital, a $40 million project that will take four years to finish.
As Enumclaw and surrounding communities have grown, the 25-bed hospital that opened in the late 1940s has struggled to meet demand for more services, such as sleep diagnostics and emergency care.
The hospital has been updated several times, but it still could not meet the demand of MRI or CT scanners and other new technology, and with 20,000-30,000 patients coming through the Enumclaw Regional Hospital each year, the hospital was wearing out faster than it could be fixed.
So in the late 1990s, the hospital began to investigate either extensively remodeling or replacing the building.
The hospital partnered with Franciscan Health System, which runs St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma and St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way. The company runs the Enumclaw Medical Clinic, and the hospital is an extension of that, said Joseph Wilczek, president and chief executive officer of Franciscan.
"We already have a large clinic in Enumclaw with 15 providers," Wilczek said. "We are expanding our presence in a region that is growing."
The new hospital, being built across the street from the current one, will keep its name. It will be licensed for 38 beds, said Dennis Popp, the hospital's chief operating officer. It will have an expanded emergency room and outpatient areas, hospice services, a larger maternity floor, space for an MRI machine and a new sleep-study laboratory.
Equipment will be updated, and specialist physicians and other medical and maintenance staff will be added to the current staff of 217.
"The general feeling of the townsfolk is that we needed an expanded, upgraded hospital to survive," Enumclaw Mayor John Wise said.
Groundbreaking is set for next spring.
from: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/southeastkingcountynews/2003749665_hospital17s.html
Special to The Seattle Times
Enumclaw is getting new hospital, a $40 million project that will take four years to finish.
As Enumclaw and surrounding communities have grown, the 25-bed hospital that opened in the late 1940s has struggled to meet demand for more services, such as sleep diagnostics and emergency care.
The hospital has been updated several times, but it still could not meet the demand of MRI or CT scanners and other new technology, and with 20,000-30,000 patients coming through the Enumclaw Regional Hospital each year, the hospital was wearing out faster than it could be fixed.
So in the late 1990s, the hospital began to investigate either extensively remodeling or replacing the building.
The hospital partnered with Franciscan Health System, which runs St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma and St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way. The company runs the Enumclaw Medical Clinic, and the hospital is an extension of that, said Joseph Wilczek, president and chief executive officer of Franciscan.
"We already have a large clinic in Enumclaw with 15 providers," Wilczek said. "We are expanding our presence in a region that is growing."
The new hospital, being built across the street from the current one, will keep its name. It will be licensed for 38 beds, said Dennis Popp, the hospital's chief operating officer. It will have an expanded emergency room and outpatient areas, hospice services, a larger maternity floor, space for an MRI machine and a new sleep-study laboratory.
Equipment will be updated, and specialist physicians and other medical and maintenance staff will be added to the current staff of 217.
"The general feeling of the townsfolk is that we needed an expanded, upgraded hospital to survive," Enumclaw Mayor John Wise said.
Groundbreaking is set for next spring.
from: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/southeastkingcountynews/2003749665_hospital17s.html