A Master Plan Update from Dr. Tom Hansen
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
For more than 100 years, Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center’s primary mission has been to provide specialized health care for sick and injured children throughout our region, regardless of their family’s ability to pay. Over the past year we have been working to create a solid growth plan that continues to meet the needs of children and our community. I want to take this opportunity to provide you with information about an important recent development that will help us expand to meet our needs and simultaneously meet several interests of the community. Before I do that, it is important to understand just how critical our need to grow is.
Our region faces a growing demand for complex healthcare services for chronically ill children, the kind of services only provided by a children’s hospital. We have experienced over 6% growth in demand for inpatient services over the past year. To assure timely admission to an inpatient bed, we need to maintain a 65 to 75% occupancy level. However, in January, our occupancy exceeded this threshold on all but four days. For several days over the past two months, we had 245 of our 250 beds full, putting the hospital at 98% capacity. Without additional beds, we will soon face a situation where Children’s may not be able to provide care for all the children who need us. With national shortages of pediatric specialists, the majority of community hospitals do not have the capacity to care for the most seriously ill children, many of whom require multi-disciplinary care.
As you may know, Children’s has proposed adding beds on our Laurelhurst campus and is engaged in a planning process with the city of Seattle and our neighbors to evaluate ways to do this. Recently, homeowners of the adjacent Laurelon Terrace Condominiums came to us with an opportunity to purchase their 6.7-acre site, which could significantly improve our expansion plan and help us meet our urgent growth needs. By acquiring Laurelon Terrace for expansion purposes, not only will Children's commit to helping develop attractive and affordable replacement housing in northeast Seattle, the hospital expansion needs could be met more efficiently, at lower project costs, and with better results to the surrounding neighborhoods. Concentrating much of our growth on the site could result in a better design for the hospital and also improve traffic flow, access and safety; ease height concerns, and provide less disruption to patients, neighbors and staff.
We are still in the early stages of examining the possibilities, but we are optimistic and eager to work with our Citizen’s Advisory Committee, the city and our neighbors to create a new alternative that incorporates the Laurelon Terrace property. By continuing to work together, we believe we can be good neighbors and continue to provide world class care for all children in our region—because they deserve nothing less than the very best.
Thank you for your time today. I encourage you to learn more about Children’s Hospital’s growth by visiting our Web site at: http://masterplan.seattlechildrens.org/. If you have any questions, please contact Desiree Leigh, our director of community relations, at (206) 987-5269, or desiree.leigh@seattlechildrens.org. We will send a community newsletter several times a year to keep you current with our progress.
Sincerely,
Dr. Thomas Hansen
CEO, Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center