Community invited to celebrate major expansion

The soaring glass windows at the front of the new Cascade Valley Hospital challenged the skills of Hoffman engineer Tomasz Kaltur, who is very happy with the results after living on site for the past year and a half. PHOTOs BY SARAH ARNEY | STANWOOD/CAMANO NEWS Up the river and over the hill, a new hospital is opening in Arlington, but it looks more like a convention center or hotel.

“That was our goal,” said assistant administrators Connie DiGregorio and Heather Logan.

“We wanted the hospital to be warm and inviting,” said DiGregorio, who commutes daily from Camano Island.

“It’s all about the comfort of our customers, the patients,” Logan said.

“We want the community to come here and visit, even when they are not sick.”

Not exactly new, the expanded Cascade Valley Hospital is yet another incarnation of a hospital established 100 years ago.

The plan was to open by the end of 2009, during the hospital’s centennial.

Assistant administrators Connie DiGregorio and Heather Logan, and community relations director Kelly Penny test the new chairs in the vast open lobby of the expansion at Cascade Valley Hospital. The lobby was designed to not look like a hospital and to make people feel welcome and comfortable. Instead, the 40,000 square feet of new space will begin serving the public Feb. 1.

The expansion adds 50 percent more space to the hospital, which was last expanded in 1987.

Before that, a singlestory, flat-roofed hospital, called Arlington General, opened in 1957, at the current location, about six blocks from Arlington’s first hospital that was built by Dr. J. E. Harris in 1909.

The 1957 building, which is now home to administrative offices, will be demolished when the remodel of the ’87 building is complete at the end of this year.

The expansion was funded by a $45 million bond supported by voters in May 2007 with a 71.69 percent margin.

Due to the slow economy, the project will be completed $2 million under budget.

Some of the extra funds will be used on a picture archive and communications system for storing digital x-rays.

The new space accommodates private rooms instead of curtains in the emergency area, which is expanding from six to 16 beds and includes a decontamination room and a special room for patients dangerous to themselves or others, a triage room for determining the next step, a separate trauma bay for medicallyintense situations, and more comfortable testing rooms, an expanded pharmacy, a roof garden, contemplation room, and an expanded kitchen and a beautiful dining area with a view through a Jack Archibald window up the Stillaguamish Valley.

The bond also paid for $4 million worth of new equipment, including a digital mammography, chemistry analyzers, the latest in nuclear medicine, and two meeting rooms with audio visual equipment that will be available for community use.T

he health and comfort of staff are also enhanced by the new facilities, with hood vents for those dealing with hazardous materials, staff lounges for most departments, and all fresh air circulating continuously.

Some “green” elements were added, such as lights that come on automatically when a person enters the room.

The 4,800 square foot professional kitchen with walk-in freezer accommodates the existing staff that has already established a reputation for offering the best deal in town for lunch.

The kitchen crew will do the cooking for the upcoming, grand opening celebration, a black-tie, invitation only affair, Jan. 23, and a community open house, Sunday, Jan. 24, 1-4 p.m.

It’s like a trip to an art museum, with about 130 works of art by artists from Arlington and Stanwood, and across Snohomish, Skagit, Whatcom and Island counties.

“We believe that art is essential for a healing environment,” said Logan, who coordinated a committee that selected calming and soothing art from submissions.

CVH served nearly 6,000 patients from Stanwood and Camano Island in 2009, Logan added.

CVH named in Top 100

Cascade Valley Hospital was recently honored by Cleverley and Associates, a leading national health care consulting firm, that recognized CVH as one of the Top 100 hospitals in the United States for providing top quality health care at low cost. The firm noted CVH’s strong financial position and was one of only three hospitals in Washington state to earn the award.

“We are pleased that Cascade Valley Hospital has received this recognition for effectively managing our costs and maintaining reasonable rates while making strong commitments to providing excellent care,” said the hospital’s chief executive, Clark Jones.

“This is a testimony to the commitment of our doctors, our board of commissioners, and our dedicated staff to quality and efficiency in providing care to our patients.”