Swedish Health Services announced today the development of an innovative ambulatory care and freestanding emergency room (ER) in Redmond. A building permit application is under review by the City of Redmond and an exterior rendering of the structure has been completed. The current schedule anticipates construction to begin in March 2010 and be completed by the end of the year.
The facility is planned on a 6.5 acre parcel at 18100 Union Hill Road, next to the Microsoft campus. Plans call for 84,560 square feet of built space on three floors, with the ER and imaging center occupying the first level. The building project will be managed and owned by Hammes Company, a third-party development partner of Swedish. Hammes Company will invest roughly $23 million in the building and surrounding parking areas.
Designed to be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Swedish will lease 55,000 square feet of space for clinical programs including an ER with 18 exam rooms, advanced diagnostic imaging (including X-ray, ultrasound,CT scan and MRI), on-site laboratory services and primary and specialty care ofices.
The new facility will be able to treat patients immediately who are suffering from severe lacerations or burns, broken bones, sports injuries, allergic reactions, food poisoning, work-related injuries and many other medical emergencies. Swedish estimates that the ER alone will see more than 20,000 patient visits each year.
“The new facility will provide a vital service to a fast-growing area,” said Kevin Brown, Swedish senior vice president and chief administrative officer. “People who live in the Greater Redmond area now have to travel 15 to 30 minutes, sometimes in heavy traffic, for medical care in an emergency.”
John Milne, M.D., medical director for strategic development at Swedish commented, “We think of a freestanding ER as a place to evaluate patients quickly, stabilize and treat them, them observe them closely. Many will get much better during the initial treatment period and avoid an expensive hospital admission. There is a huge gap between what can be done in a traditional outpatient clinic and an acute-care hospital. Many people don’t require hospitalization and full inpatient treatment, but they need much more than clinic services of home care. A freestanding ER fits perfectly in the middle of that range.”
Patients at the this Redmond facility will be taken directly to an open room, bypassing the typical triage and registration process that result in queuing and frequently long ER wait times. Paramedics and EMTs will also benefit from the facility’s location, because less driving will allow them to be back in service more rapidly.
All physicians at the Redmond facility will have access to Swedish’s secure electronic health records system so vital information can be conveyed easily among a patient’s authorized caregivers.
Over the planned nine-month-long construction phase, Swedish’s new Redmond ER development will create nearly 230 new construction and related jobs In addition, 130 permanent health care jobs will be established to support the facility.
For more information about Swedish Health Services, visit www.swedish.org.
