by Richard Uhlhorn
On Friday, July 15, I toured the new hospital with the Chelan Hospital Foundation. While there has been considerable angst about the necessities of downsizing the facility to stay within the $44.5 million dollar budget, I was impressed with, not only the layout, but the generous utilization of the space allocated for the new facility. Everything inside flows efficiently.
Today, the Critical Access downsized version is 52,250 square feet with room for future expansion and includes 12 patient rooms, two expanded Operating Rooms with the possibility of a third if needed and ample parking for patients and staff.
The total cost to build is $28,483,000 not including the $2.3 million in Washington State taxes.
The public in the Hospital District approved a bond of $20 million dollars. The rest of the build out comes from a $2 million grant from the Lake Chelan Health & Wellness Foundation. The remaining $6 million will be covered by hospital debt capacity, grants and reserves.
Our guide for the tour was Hospital Director of Operations Shawn Ottley. Shawn knows every inch of the new hospital and described each aspect of what clients and patients can expect when visiting the new facility from emergencies to elective surgery.
After the tour I asked the new CEO, Aaron Edwards about hospital revenue. “Revenue is trending up,” he stated. He also said he has interviewed more MDs since taking his new position than have ever been interviewed in the last six years. “Housing is still a major issue,” he added.
The hospital has two OR rooms for conducting surgeries along with another room for outpatient joint injections, etc. A third OR room could be available if necessary.
We began the tour at the Emergency entrance and continued through to Labor, Delivery, Recovery and Postpartum rooms. Following is a visual tour of the hospital which will have its Grand Opening on October 15, 2022.
If interested, Lake Chelan Now will conduct a live streaming tour at 1 p.m. on Friday, July 22.
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