A trip to the Swedish Ballard emergency room will soon be a whole new experience.
The main entrance of the new Swedish Ballard facility
The new facility at 5350 Tallman Ave NW is set to open at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, November 9th. But before the doors open to patients, the public has the opportunity to tour the building.
One of the patient rooms in the ER. Six of the 18 rooms have doors to the waiting area.
The first floor is the new emergency department (ED) where the rooms and procedures are set up to get patients in and out quickly. “We’ve changed the process dramatically,” Dr. Ray Jarris, the medical director of the ED tells us. There is no waiting in a traditional waiting room. When you walk through the door of the ER, you’ll be taken to one of the 18 private rooms “You come into the emergency department, you get brought to a room and we’re going to swarm. We’re going to bring the medical provider, a doc or physician’s assistant, a nurse or two and a tech into the room and start multiple processes at the same time.”
The waiting area of the emergency department. The art on the walls throughout the facility is hand selected and includes some Ballard artists.
The state average time in the ER is 250 minutes. According to Dr. Jarris , Swedish Ballard averaged 120 minutes last month. Their goal, according to Jarris, is to get children moved through in an average of 90 minutes.
The emergency department is equipped with its own radiology machine and portable radiology machine. There is also a decontamination room in the event that someone is exposed to hazardous material. The ambulance entry is along the side of the building and patients brought in by ambulance will be brought in through their own entrance.
One of the imaging machines in the radiology department.
The second floor of the building is the radiology department. The advanced Imaging Center consolidates the imaging services to one location. It features an MRI, a 16-slice CT, high resolution ultrasound as well as radiographic imaging. Screening and diagnostic mammography as well as bone density scanning are in the recently renovated area of the medical center.
The waiting area for Swedish Physicians Ballard
The third floor is the new Swedish Physicians Ballard with 24 rooms. The clinic is set up in four sections, A, B, C and D, which are all color-coded. Swedish Physicians Ballard currently has ten doctors but is bringing on one more. The new offices will open on Monday, November 15th.
The community garden on Market Street. Photo courtesy Swedish.
The public open house will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. Organizers have several activities planned including a tour of the Emergency Department and medical office, “Ask the Doctor” and a teddy bear clinic for kids to have their stuffed animals and dolls checked out.
The Baby Bite of Ballard will take over the unfinished fifth floor. Ballard Brothers Seafood and Burgers, Great Harvest Bread, India Bistro, Plaka Estiatorio, Ray’s Boathouse, Scandinavian Specialties, The Hi-Life, The Counter and Thai Siam will all be handing out bite-sized samples. From 1:45 to 2:30 p.m., Caspar Babypants will be performing on the fifth floor.(Disclosure: Swedish Ballard is a sponsor of MyBallard.)