Issaquah will finally get a hospital

Issaquah will finally get a hospital.

Brian Perry
Eastside Realtor

So here it comes, the city of Issaquah will finally get a hospital.

It has been a drawn out battle between the Washington State Department of Health, Swedish and the people of the plateau.  Here is the history of the situation... in June of 2004 Swedish Hospital submitted a formal Certificate-of-Need application to the Washington State Department of Health to build a hospital.  WSDOH denied the application in 2005 despite the fact smaller communities have hospitals and they had just a approved a new hospital for Gig Harbor.  This stimulated the residents of Issaquah / Sammamish into action.  They flooded the state with over 500 letters and strong showing at public hearings in support of a community hospital.  In january of this year Swedish appealed the 2005 decision and the superior court judged against the WSDOH because they counted 132 Group Health beds in their intital bed count....so here we are! 

Check out today's press release.  This article was posted by The Seattle P.I.  The original artical can be found here.

Saturday, June 2, 2007
Last updated 12:10 a.m. PT

Swedish hospital for Issaquah approved

P-I STAFF

Swedish Medical Center's application to build a 175-bed hospital in Issaquah was approved Friday by the state Department of Health. Swedish appealed twice to reverse the Health Department's original denial of its application in 2004.

The approval has three conditions for Swedish, including submitting a new timeline for implementation and verifying that the hospital will maintain records proving it meets state policies and laws.

Also according to the approval, construction of the hospital is to take place in three phases, with 80, 140 and 55 beds respectively. If Phase 3 is not completed within seven years of the completion of Phase 1, any remaining beds not meeting licensing requirements will be forfeited.

The new hospital is scheduled to open in 2012.

So what does this mean for the people of Issaquah / Sammamish?  You tell me.  What are your thoughts?  I would love to hear from the folks it will affect the most.