Published April 2002

Valley General plans
bond measure, expansion

By Kimberly Hilden
Herald Business Journal Assistant Editor

Valley General Hospital has been suffering from growing pains.

Since 1990, emergency visits to the Monroe hospital have grown 94 percent. Inpatient and same-day surgeries have grown 282 percent, and imaging services are up 380 percent, according to Valley General figures.

Such numbers are reflective of the community’s own growth spurt, said Martha Dankers, Director of Community Relations for the hospital.

Between 1990 and 2000, for example, Monroe’s population grew 223 percent, Sultan’s 50 percent and Snohomish’s 31 percent, according to the hospital.

“In ’95, it just mushroomed, and our volumes have increased even more quickly than that,” Dankers said, noting that the hospital last underwent expansion in 1993.

Now, Valley General is working to heal its growing pains — and not with a bandage approach.

In September, the hospital, which is owned and operated by Snohomish County Public Hospital District No. 1, will put a $42.5 million bond measure up for a public vote. If the measure passes, the hospital plans to use those funds to nearly double in size — from 110,000 square feet to 215,000 square feet, Chief Executive Officer Mark Judy said.

“The areas that are going to get remodeled and expanded upon are key areas that are feeling the most pressure,” Dankers said. “That is emergency, which grows about 10 to 11 percent a year; surgery, particularly outpatient surgery and inpatient care; and imaging.”

Expansion plans include:

• Increasing emergency capacity from nine bays to 16, plus eight observation rooms.
• Increasing surgery capacity from three operating rooms and three procedure rooms to six operating rooms and four procedure rooms.
• Increasing the imaging department from five rooms to 12 rooms.
• Increasing birth center capacity from five birthing suites to nine birthing suites, two postpartum recovery rooms and one C-section room.

Construction would begin in late 2003, Judy said, with project completion in midyear 2005. Planning for just the right amount of expansion has been a challenge, Judy said, noting that the hospital has worked closely with residents, community leaders and staff as well as Callison Architects of Seattle.

“It was really an integrated, interactive process — really taking a look at population growth and how that translated into increased demand for specific services and size,” he said. “We actually picked the year 2010 as a target to size the various departments.”

But the project also allows for further expansion down the road — both horizontally and vertically, he said.

Along with looking at how it would grow, the hospital also had to look at where it would grow, Judy said.

Located at 14701 179th Ave SE, Valley General is “landlocked” by Highway 2, a railroad and 179th, Judy said, but relocating would have added a “20 percent premium in construction and development costs.”

Plus, about 80 percent of respondents to a community survey wanted the hospital to expand at its existing site, Judy said, “so that seemed like a fairly clear direction.”

Still, the hospital needed more space and, last spring and summer, was involved in negotiations with 12 property owners to the south of the hospital.

The negotiations proved fruitful, with all of the owners having sold or having agreed to sell their property to the hospital, Judy said. Ten have been acquired outright so far. Two homeowners are choosing to remain in their homes until July 2003.

Now all that remains is community outreach and the Sept. 17 election, and Judy is sensitive to the current economic hardships.

“Bond issues are very, very difficult, particularly in the current environment,” he said, but so are “partial solutions” to the hospital district’s space crunch.

“Our sense is that if the bond issue doesn’t pass the first time, we’re going to have to go back out and continue the education effort and come back with a very similar bond issue (following) fairly closely,” Judy said.

For more information on Valley General, visit the hospital’s Web site, www.valleygeneral.com.

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