Critics wrong to put a black hat on Providence

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, February 20, 2005

Where’s the love?

Officials of Providence Everett Medical Center could be excused for wondering that last week.

This is a not-for-profit institution whose mission calls for special concern for the poor and vulnerable. It provided more than $27 million in charity and uncompensated care in 2003. It is Snohomish County’s third-largest employer, providing about 3,200 good jobs. It receives no tax-based financial support, but in 2004 paid more than $12 million in taxes. Earnings go back into its Everett facilities to meet the community’s health-care needs.

Yet now, as neighbors protest expansion plans for the hospital’s main facility on Colby Avenue, Providence is being portrayed by some as the enemy. It’s a bit like putting devil horns on Santa Claus.

Particularly misguided were stickers worn by protesters at an Everett Planning Commission meeting last week that implied hospital officials considered its North Everett neighbors trash. Nice thought for a hospital that cares for any patient who walks through the door, regardless of ability to pay.

The need to accommodate a growing and aging population, to replace old buildings and take advantage of medical advances mean the hospital must expand. Its plan to grow to the east, displacing a street of historic homes that Providence owns, has frayed nerves among the hospital’s neighbors. Emotions have begun to take over, so some perspective is in order.

Providence Everett Medical Center is a community asset. It is regularly recognized as one of the nation’s top cardiovascular hospitals, and its Colby emergency department is the second-busiest in the state. Plans for the first phase of its expansion call for a world-class cancer center.

More than 2,200 jobs will be added once the expansion is complete, at an average salary of $58,000 a year. The project will pump $400 million into the economy, creating even more jobs. Its plan includes enough stalls to keep patrons from parking on neighborhood streets, addressing a long-standing complaint.

Reasonable people can disagree over details of the expansion plan. That’s what public hearings are for. We continue to support the hospital’s plan, and applaud its willingness to explore ways to move, rather than raze, displaced homes in the Donovan District.

But it’s way off base to paint Providence as a bad guy. It’s anything but that.