LYNNWOOD—Overlake Medical Center & Clinics and MultiCare, in partnership with Emerus Holdings, cut the ribbon on a brand new off-campus emergency department in Lynnwood on Wednesday, October 1, which is the first of its kind to open in Snohomish County.
Located at 3011 196th Street Southwest, the brand-new 11,000-square-foot standalone emergency department features 12 exam rooms, on-site radiology services (including CT scanners and X-ray), a point-of-care testing lab, and on-site pharmacy services to offer a wide variety of emergency care.
When the emergency care department officially opens on Monday, October 6, it will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and be fully staffed with board-certified emergency physicians.
Overlake said patients can expect 15-minute wait times or less with visits spanning less than two hours in total (from walking in to heading home). While the facility has the capacity to deal with most medical emergencies (about 98% of its patients can be served on-site) it can also transfer patients out to nearby Swedish Edmonds Campus if needed.
At Wednesday’s ceremony, which fell on the one-year anniversary of when MultiCare and Overlake merged, Jon Duarte, Overlake president and CEO as well as CEO of MultiCare’s North Sound Region, shared a few words on how the opening of the Overlake MultiCare Emergency center comes to Lynnwood at a time of rapid regional growth, bringing much-needed access to emergency services in the region.
“Since its inception, Overlake has been a fixture of compassionate, leading-edge care on the Eastside, and our dedicated team of health care professionals is ready to bring that same level of service to communities in the North Sound,” said Duarte. “It will truly be our privilege to serve more individuals and families in Lynnwood and the surrounding communities and to provide them with more locally accessible care options.”
Duarte then turned it over to Bill Robertson, MultiCare CEO, who reflected on when MultiCare opened its first ever neighborhood emergency department in Parkland (a suburb of Tacoma) six years ago. Now, Lynnwood’s own neighborhood emergency department is MultiCare’s seventh in total and first ever in Snohomish County, adding to a statewide network of emergency, urgent, primary and specialty care facilities.
“Our mission, vision and values are integral to the work that we do in order to be of service to our communities. They are what drive us to constantly seek new ways of delivering care to those communities, and new opportunities to serve an ever-growing number of individuals and families with ever-increasing needs for local access to health care services,” said Roberts. “This need is particularly apparent in the emergency care space, where long wait times are an unfortunate consequence of increased patient demand — especially in areas with limited emergency care options.”
The Lynnwood location is an extension of Overlake’s emergency care in Bellevue that has served the region for more than six decades.
“It’s a true privilege to partner with Overlake to bring these much-needed emergency services to the Lynnwood community,” said Robertson. “This is one more example of how we are able to accomplish so much more together than we can apart.”
Following Roberts, Florence Chang, President of MultiCare Health System, echoed Roberts’ remarks on the demand for local healthcare services’ rapid growth.
“Neighborhood ERs bring the same level of care as hospital-based facilities right into the neighborhoods where our patients live and work, eliminating the need to travel long distances for care,” said Chang. “In most cases, they also vastly reduce the amount of time patients have to wait for that care.”
Chang also thanked Emerus for their partnership who, she said, was “invaluable” in making emergency care more accessible in the region.
“Neighborhood emergency rooms, like this one, are designed to provide prompt, comprehensive care for a wide range of illnesses and injuries. Patients can be seen, treated and discharged in far less time than at a traditional larger hospital,” said Renee Espinosa, Market President for Emerus. “Like all our other ERs, Overlake MultiCare Emergency — Lynnwood was thoughtfully designed by health care specialists and architects on a mission to transform the emergency care experience for both patients and staff.”
Espinosa also noted that the new clinic will serve its communities by adding more local jobs, more partnership opportunities with community organizations, and supporting health education and prevention.
Overlake and MultiCare partnered with Emerus, who claim to be a national leader in building and operating small-format hospitals and off-campus emergency departments. Emerus has built a reputation for its commitment to transforming emergency services by designing care around the patient and family allowing them an exceptional patient experience in a cost-efficient manner.
Lastly, Lynnwood Mayor Christine Frizzell spoke, welcoming the new emergency healthcare clinic with open arms.
“I appreciate the vibrancy that you bring, the services that you bring, and that you’re taking care of our community, which is so very important,” said Lynnwood Mayor Frizzell. “Welcome to Lynnwood.”
Also in attendance at Wednesday’s ribbon cutting was Washington State Representative Lauren Davis, Lynnwood City Councilman and Mayoral candidate George Hurst, and Lynnwood City Councilwoman Derica Escamilla.
“This is really awesome to have another alternative for to an emergency room. They have a CT scanner, they have radiology, they even have a security room for mental health patients. It’s just going to be an addition to our community and medical services for our folks. I think it’s exciting,” Lynnwood City Councilman George Hurst told the Lynnwood Times.
Representative Davis shared with the Lynnwood Times that she has visited several emergency care clinics in the region which often have long waits. At nearby Swedish Hospital in Edmonds hallway beds have become so frequent they have even started to give them numbers, she added.
“I welcome this to the community with open arms. Because it was purpose-built as a new emergency department, they have a lot of features that were very thoughtful such as two, of the twelve, beds are psychiatric rooms specifically. We didn’t use to build emergency departments that way and a lot of ED’s across the state don’t have rooms that are appropriate for that patient population. So the fact that it’s set up that way from the beginning I think is really encouraging,” said Rep. Davis. “MultiCare seems to be very forward thinking and I think they’ll be great partners.
Rep. Davis continued that with the crises care center going online quarter one of next year, the new emergency department will work great in tandem as par as cross referrals and transfers for additional care, in addition to the new CRC/CJC with the ability of getting prebooking medical clearance and for inmates who make experience a medical emergency.
On Saturday, October 4, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Overlake and MultiCare will be holding an open house to the public featuring food trucks, activities, and tours.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
