In 2007, an era when many tax increases on a ballot are soundly defeated, the people at Arlington’s Cascade Valley Hospital found out how much their community supports them when voters approved a $46 million bond issue for a major expansion by 72 percent.
Construction for the 13-month project, the first major expansion in 20 years, is underway. The new three-story building is due to open in September 2009, in time for the hospital’s centennial celebration. In 1909 Dr. J.E. Harris built Arlington General Hospital, a facility that served the community until a new hospital was built in 1958. Since the 1960s, when the hospital was renamed Cascade Valley, the facility has been remodeled twice, adding many new services. Today’s hospital was built on the same site in 1987, again to meet the needs of the area’s growing population.
Today, the expanded health system is known as Cascade Valley Hospital &Clinics, with a variety of primary care and specialty clinics in Arlington, Smokey Point, North Marysville, Granite Falls and Darrington.
Altogether, the bond issue is paying for expanding the emergency center from six to 15 treatment areas and enlarging the overall facility by 54,000 square feet. Work includes renovating the existing hospital. When the construction work is finished, and the last of the moves to the new space are completed, the oldest of the buildings will be demolished.
“The expansion work has stimulated a lot of excitement with both staff and patients and everyone’s been very patient in putting up with the inconvenience of the building work. While the site is torn up in different places we’ve set up a shuttle van from the parking lot across the street,” said the hospital’s administrator, Clark Jones.
He expects an increase of 20 percent in the use of hospital services as soon as the newer, more efficient facilities are opened, based on what he’s seen from activities at other hospitals that have expanded.
“We’ll have more privacy for patients’ treatments, more nurses stations and a larger emergency department, plus much more efficiency. It’ll be a facility our growing community can be proud of,” he said. “We’ll also be adding another $5 million in equipment, although we have a wide variety of medical technology already in place here.” Assistant administrator Connie DiGregorio said the current soft construction market saved the hospital money on its bids.
“Also, work crews are beginning some renovation of the existing hospital while they’re on site for the new construction, which makes it very efficient for us in trying to finish the project sooner than we originally anticipated,” said DiGregorio, who is focusing full-time on overseeing the construction work while others have taken over her usual duties as assistant administrator.
The expansion also means improved quarters for two specialized facilities at Cascade Valley, its Wound Care Center and Sleep Disorders Lab.
“Out of some 350 wound centers in the United States, ours is ranked in the top 20,” said Michael Handley, director of the center. “This is our tenth anniversary of serving people from all over Snohomish County, not just Arlington. Nationally, there are an estimated 13 million people with unhealing wounds, typically diabetes patients. We have an unmatched healing rate for our patients of more than 80 percent.”
He works closely with area physicians, providing the specialized care that non-healing patients need, then returning them to the care of their primary doctor. He also counts the network of other centers in the nation as an important resource for healing solutions.
“We found not just on the wound but also on the whole patient needs, such as diabetic management, improved nutrition and other aspects,” he said. “Patients are with us an hour or more at a time, which is time typical physicians are not able to spend with patients. We also help to educate doctors on what we can do and how we can help with these types of cases.”
The wound center is a valuable community resource that serves the whole county and beyond. Many people, he said, believe Arlington is too far away until they visit or that the hospital is too small to serve their needs.
“Patient satisfaction is what makes us one of the top 20 in the nation. We are very well respected in the medical community and we’re very specialized in what we do,” he said. “It’s unusual for a hospital this size to have such a successful wound center.”
Another unusual center for the small hospital treats sleep disorders, a problem that affects about 60 million people in the country. Each year, more than 1,550 people die nationally simply because of dozing off while they’re driving. Drowsiness is responsible for at least 100,000 vehicle crashes and 71,000 injuries nationally, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
“Many people see their sleep problem as just having a bad night’s rest,” said the sleep disorders center director, Dr. Muhammad Sayed. “But there are 84 identified types of problem sleep conditions and we deal with them. ”
He spends much of his time educating people about sleep disorders, including Arlington, Darrington and other areas where the hospital serves or where inquiries are made to the center.
“We have an excellent record of diagnosis and treatment for sleep disorders,” he said. “Statistics on patient satisfaction show it’s up more than 300 percent over three years ago when we started here. People are learning more about it and telling their friends. We get more patients all the time.”
During a night sleep study, called a polysomnogram, electrodes are used to record sleep patterns, including brain, eye, and muscle activity. In addition; breathing patterns, heart rhythms, oxygen levels, and leg movements are studied. Once a thorough evaluation is completed, a course of treatment is decided based on the diagnosis and type of sleep problem. Primarily, sleep disorders cause excessive daytime sleepiness or difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, he said.
“One condition, insomnia, can often be traced to excessive consumption of caffeine, particularly in coffee,” he said. “My record coffee drinking patient averaged 36 cups a day, until I found a patient who holds the current record of 43 cups. On a more serious note, research has found that sleep apnea can cause strokes because oxygen levels go down, allowing blood clots to form. We save lives just by helping people solve their sleep problems.”
For more information, visit www.cascadevalley.org for news about the hospital and its network of clinics in north Snohomish County.
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