Pullman hospital has a new address
Building a hospital from the ground up in a rural area is unusual these days. Pullman Regional Hospital, which will be dedicated today and is set to open Dec. 16, is just the second newly built hospital in Washington state in 25 years.
The $28.5 million facility was funded in part by an $8.2 million construction bond approved by public hospital district voters in 2001. That bond passed after two previous bond votes had failed.
“We brought the amount down a little bit. We were better organized. And people realized that the old facility really was inadequate,” said Hal Kerr, president of the hospital’s board and a member of the business faculty at Washington State University.
The hospital replaces Pullman Memorial Hospital on the WSU campus. The new building is about a mile from the university on a 60-acre campus, sharing Palouse views and architectural details with an adjoining medical building and a physical therapy office.
In the future, the hospital board hopes to build a nursing home and long-term care facility at the same Bishop Boulevard location.
Visitors at today’s 6 p.m. dedication ceremony will see a hospital designed to accommodate a growing business in outpatient services such as X-rays and lab tests. The hospital currently does about 45,000 outpatient procedures a year, compared to 1,300 patients a year who spend at least a night in the hospital.
Those overnight patients include about 350 moms giving birth each year. The new hospital will have eight rooms devoted to labor, delivery and recovery. Each room has a whirlpool tub and a guest bed.
Supply cabinets in patient rooms can be restocked from the hallway without disturbing patients.
The hospital will be almost paperless; that is, nurses and doctors will consult electronic medical records and order prescriptions electronically.
A healing garden, carpeted hallways and grand views from most rooms are other features. All patient services are on one level. On the roof is a helicopter landing pad.
The hospital features some technology that wasn’t available in the old building, such as a magnetic resonance imaging machine. All radiology images, such as mammograms, are now digital, which means a Pullman radiologist can send them electronically to Spokane for an instantaneous consultation with another specialist.
The 95,000-square-foot hospital has 26 beds, four more than the old facility. The emergency room and outpatient area are larger. There are three operating rooms where patients can have general surgery such as cataract surgery, hernia repair and knee replacement.
The hospital will serve Whitman and Latah counties, and WSU students.
Architecture firm Collins-Woerman of Bellevue used yellows and greens that reflect the Palouse hills both inside and outside. Lydig Construction of Spokane was the general contractor.
The old hospital building, which is owned by WSU, will continue to house student health services. The university has not yet determined how other space in the building will be used.
The hospital will continue to work with the university to provide some services to students on campus, said hospital spokesman Matt Strange.