PORT ANGELES — Olympic Medical Center’s new $20.6 million Medical Office Building was christened Saturday with dignitaries offering thanks to the community and scores of residents touring the new two-story, 42,000-square-foot outpatient facility east of downtown.
“Looking at this building. It is the future now for Clallam County in health care,” an ebullient OMC Clallam County Hospital District 2 Commissioner Jim Leskinovitch told upward of 125 well-wishers at the 907 Georgiana St. grand opening, which was followed by a daylong health fair.
“We had an overwhelming support from the community,” he said, recalling hospital district voters who, “in spite of every naysayer saying this is the wrong time,” approved a 2008 levy that quadrupled the property tax rate from 11 cents to 44 cents per $1,000 that helped the hospital survive.
“And I mean survive,” Leskinovitch emphasized to an audience that included 24th District state Sen. Kevin Van De Wege and 24th District state Rep. Steve Tharinger, both of Sequim.
“So this building is a commitment to the community. It is your building, your hospital, the community and not some corporation,” Leskinovitch said standing under a tent on the edge of a new 200-space parking lot.
The facility is composed of color-coded departments that Medical Office Building tour guide Christin Deese, an Olympic Medical Physicians Primary Care supervisor, referred to as neighborhoods, with walls adorned with paintings by local artists.
The facility, chock-full of labs and fully operational Saturday, includes a walk-in clinic that is “a huge new addition for Port Angeles,” CEO Eric Lewis said in an interview, as well as orthopedics, cardiology, pulmonary medicine, gastroenterology, urology and women’s health services.
Thirty-six employees have been added to the hospital district staff for the building, including eight new providers, increasing the hospital’s workforce to 1,350 workers, Lewis said.
“A ZIP code shouldn’t determine our access to quality medical care,” he said at the grand opening.
“We believe Clallam County deserves the same access as King County.
“This building is a big step toward that goal.”
Hospital commissioners awarded a base bid and alternate bids totaling $16.2 million to Kirtley-Cole Associates LLC of Everett for the project in July 2015.
Additional expenditures included an expanded emergency power system, purchase of a former women’s clinic building, soil compaction and contamination issues, Lewis said Friday.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
Two-year-old Ryliegh Baker looks on as her aunt, Nicole Baker of Port Angeles, left, and pediatrician Grace Yelland give a medical examination to the youngster’s stuffed animal as a grand opening activity Saturday for a new medical office building constructed by Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
