Clinic, medical center options growing quickly in county
Published 9:47 pm Sunday, April 4, 2010
Pacific Medical’s new Canyon Park office is one of a number of new developments in health services now under way in Snohomish County.
Swedish Health Services is expected to open a new stand-alone emergency room and medical services building late this year at 128th Street’s intersection with I-5
Providence Regional Medical Center Everett plans to open a new 12-story, $500 million medical tower in the summer of 2011.
Swedish and Stevens Hospital in Edmonds have a pending affiliation agreement that could bring new medical services to south Snohomish County beginning later this year.
These developments are occurring despite the continuing slump in the local and national economy.
The reason: Services are beginning to catch up with a growing population, said Cassie Sauer, spokeswoman for the Washington State Hospital Association.
As one example, Providence has been at capacity for several years, she said. And its emergency room, which treated some 110,000 patients last year, also needed room to expand for years, hospital officials say.
In Snohomish County, “You have huge population growth,” she added. “That’s the biggest driver.”
The population’s demographic is another factor. As baby boomers age, “you’ve got more people living longer who have (health insurance),” Sauer said.
Pacific Medical Center’s origins date back to World War II, beginning with a hospital in downtown Seattle for merchant mariners. That hospital was closed in the 1980s, but it opened clinics and urgent care centers and now operates as a nonprofit, said Linda Eremic, Pacific Medical’s director of clinic operations.
In addition to its new Canyon Park office, its other medical offices are at Lynnwood, Renton, Totem Lake and three offices in Seattle, Beacon Hill, First Hill, Northgate. Pacific Medical also has a diagnostic and women’s wellness center and a sleep center, both in Seattle.
The Canyon Park office will accept a variety of health insurance plans as well as Medicare and Molina, which helps provide health care to Medicaid patients. The clinic is not accepting new Medicaid patients.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486, salyer@heraldnet.com.
