PORT TOWNSEND — The latest timeline for Jefferson Healthcare’s campus modernization and expansion project has demolition starting in September, construction starting the following month and a completion date falling sometime between January and March 2025.
COO Jacob Davidson delivered an update on the $83,695,136 project on Feb. 28 at a special Board of Commissioners meeting, which included ZGF Architecture’s renderings of the proposed campus and buildings.
“We’re in design development right now, so lots of this is changing in real time,” Davidson said. “The big focus is trying to make the new building look very similar to our other buildings.”
Plans call for the campus’ 1965 Building to be demolished and replaced with a medical office building to house Jefferson Healthcare’s new linear accelerator that will allow it to offer radiation treatment to patients.
The adjacent 1988 and 1995 Buildings and the Emergency & Specialty Services Building (ESSB) would not close during construction activity on the 1965 Building.
“This is a great example of why this build is so complex,” Davidson said. “All three buildings around it are going to be operational 24/7.”
Jefferson Healthcare CEO Mike Glenn will speak about the hospital’s expansion project, the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues at a Chamber of Jefferson County event on Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St.
“Chamber Community Connect with Jefferson Healthcare” is free and open to the public. To register, go to https://tinyurl.com/2d5kdhue.
Dental clinic
Jefferson County’s unmet need for dental providers serving low-income patients was part of the impetus behind Jefferson Healthcare opening a dental clinic in June 2019 — the first rural health clinic in the state to do so. (Klickitat Valley Health was the second in October 2019).
Each provider sees between eight and 10 and up to 12 patients a day, Davidson said, but there is still a long waiting list of people seeking care.
“When we decided to open the dental clinic, it was a whole new lesson for us,” Davidson said.
“You do the first assessment and then it’s all of the treatments after, which can be quite a lot,” Davidson said.
“The team’s working very strategically to figure out how we can work through that backlog. The team and Heidi Matthews, the manager of the clinic, meet regularly and get very creative about how we can meet the needs of our patients.”
Commissioner Kees Kolff said it was important that the community understand it still needed more low-cost providers, “because it’s a disaster to get dental care.”
Glenn said before it decided to open a dental clinic, Jefferson Healthcare had met with local dental providers to discuss how they could work together to deliver the care the community needed.
“Part of their concern was that they were reluctant to accept Medicaid patients at that far below cost rate because they felt they would be overwhelmed,” Glenn said.
“The hope at the time was that Jefferson Healthcare would be the primary player for that population, and then all of the other dental clinics could open up and take some [of those patients].”
Because demand for low-cost care was still outstripping supply and frustrating patients who were unable to access its clinic, Glenn suggested to Davidson that they reconnect with the local dental providers.
“Call that group together and just ask them how they think it’s going, [and] share with them some of our data,” Glenn said. “Maybe we can solicit their support.”
Foundation
The Jefferson Healthcare Foundation has been given a re-boot with a new board of directors who have set as their first goal to raise $2.5 million for Jefferson Healthcare’s radiation therapy project.
The foundation board also will be reaching out to reconnect with Jefferson Healthcare employees and engage with the community.
Serving on the nine-member board are Jefferson Healthcare Board member Marie Dressler; Andrew Fallat, former CEO of Evergreen Medical Center in Kirkland; Patty Rhoden, former CEO of Banner Health at the University Medical Center in Phoenix; Hilary Whittington Kerber, CFO of Pulse Heart Institute and former CFO/CAO of Jefferson Healthcare; Karen Swanson-Woolf, a nurse who worked in Washington, D.C., in policy, budget and appropriations for various government agencies; Marti Tarnowski, senior vice president at Swedish Hospital; Lanny Turay, director of pharmacy for Jefferson Healthcare; and Adena Whitman, vice president at First Federal; and ex officio member Mike Glenn.
“Everybody brings a different skill to the board,” Dressler said. “We’re going to be very successful.”
________
Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at paula.hunt@soundpublishing.com.
