PORT ANGELES — One project ended with a snip; the other began with a crunch at Olympic Medical Center.
Hospital officials cut a red ribbon at noon Wednesday to officially open an expanded emergency department while wreckers paused from making way for OMC’s new medical office building.
The scene of celebration took place directly across Caroline Street from the tableau of demolition.
Ribbon-cutting
A group of about 50 hospital staff members joined the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Hospital District 2 Commissioner Jean Hordyk wielded the giant scissors.
Eric Lewis, OMC’s CEO, called the occasion “an exciting day for Olympic Medical Center” and thanked the emergency department for “an incredible attitude and extreme amount of patience” during the project, which began in August 2014.
The emergency department has been expanded to 20 beds, including rooms for people in behavioral crises, and includes a negative-air-pressure room for suspected cases of contagious illnesses.
The department handles about 27,000 patients a year, Lewis said.
Start the destruction
Across Caroline Street, story-high piles of rubble stood waiting to be hauled away from the site of a building that once housed Family Medicine of Port Angeles and later Olympic Home Health.
“Seeing buildings torn down is equally exciting,” Lewis told the commissioners.
Bruch and Bruch Construction Inc. of Port Angeles is performing the demolition. The $16.2 million, two-story structure that will occupy the site will be built by Kirtley-Cole Associates of Everett LLC, with construction slated to last 16 months.
In a meeting that followed the ceremony, hospital commissioners approved a scope-of-practice for Dr. Judah Slavkovsky, who will serve a four-week surgical residency assisting Dr. Charles Bundy. The residency will be a first for OMC.
Dr. Scott Kennedy, the hospital’s chief medical officer, called it “a very careful start” with hopes of someday establishing a continuing program.
The commissioners also approved a $1,500-per-12-hour contract for Dr. Susan Hustad, who will fill in for vacations and illnesses among Olympic Medical Physicians doctors, an expected three to four weeks a year.
Commissioners also learned that the Sequim Cancer Center has begun to offer integrative medicine in the form of mind-body therapy and massage for patients undergoing chemotherapy.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
