Staff was treating its first patient just 10 minutes after the doors of Providence Regional Medical Center Everett’s new emergency department officially opened for business at 5 a.m. today.
The new emergency department, with 79 treatment rooms, was one of the first services to open in the hospital’s new 12-story, $460 million medical tower.
The first patients were the typical mix of medical problems that show up in emergency rooms: a woman with abdominal pain, a mom with a sick baby, a patient with symptoms that may have indicated a stroke.
The hospital has opened a 24-hour command center, with staff ready to help unsnarl any problems that crop up in the new building, which will be staffed for two weeks.
But during its opening hours, few major problems were reported other than some scattered problems with phones and computers sending documents to the wrong printer, said Preston Simmons, the hospital’s chief operating officer.
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