By Sharon Salyer
Herald Writer
A five-story, $56 million addition to Providence Everett Medical Center — housing a new birthing unit, intensive care unit for high-risk babies and specialty services for children and women — will open on Mother’s Day, May 12.
The Pavilion for Women and Children, a 150,000-square-foot building on the hospital’s Pacific Campus, is one of the largest building projects under way in Snohomish County.
It will offer a range of specialty services in collaboration with Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center and the University of Washington, said Fran Schlafer-Wall, who is overseeing the project.
The facility’s new birthing unit will include 32 single-occupancy rooms.
"Our goal is to open at midnight on May 12," Schlafer-Wall said.
It will replace the hospital’s current baby unit, which has been housed at its Colby Campus since the merger of the city’s two hospitals, the former Providence Hospital and General Hospital Medical Center, in 1994.
After the merger, hospital officials decided to close the popular $2.25 million baby unit that opened at the former Providence Hospital in 1990, known for its bed-and-breakfast amenities. It was shut down in October 1996.
Since that time, women giving birth at the hospital have had more utilitarian accommodations, often having to share rooms.
In September 1998, when plans for the building project were announced, hospital officials acknowledged that they had heard from both patients and doctors that they needed to upgrade their birthing facilities.
About 3,100 babies are now born at the Everett hospital each year.
The pavilion also will be home to a number of other services, including:
A public open house has been scheduled for the new building on May 10 and 11.
You can call Herald Writer Sharon Salyer at 425-339-3486
or send e-mail to salyer@heraldnet.com.
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