by Kirby Lindsay, posted 30 January 2013
Located in ‘Northwest Fremont,’ the Swedish Medical Center Ballard Campus has expanded and transformed over the last few years. Hopefully you’ve had no personal experiences or reasons to learn about the vast array of resources now added at our local hospital and medical center.
Fremont’s Emergency Room
For instance, two years ago the Swedish/Ballard emergency room moved into the new Tallman Building, located to the north of the primary hospital building on Tallman Avenue North. The new, state-of-the-art emergency department not only shifted over, but was re-designed to focus on giving patients access to services more quickly.
“We do what we call ‘direct bedding,” explained Jennifer Graves, RN, MS and Chief Executive & Nurse Executive for Swedish/Ballard. Rather than invest in more chairs for a larger waiting room, the walk-in entrance to the ER contains only a few seats plus a staff person ready to admit the injured or ill patients to a room, and a bed, for triage and treatment by a care team consisting of a nurse, a technician, and a physician or physician assistant. “Our average cycle time,” Graves reported on visits to the Swedish/Ballard emergency room, “is just over two hours.”
“We take care of everybody here,” Graves stated. Anyone in need of emergency medical attention can go to Swedish/Ballard – either as a walk-in or through the drive-up entrance for ambulance/Medic One. The drive-up entrance also has a lift available to assist patients in shifting safely from a private vehicle onto a gurney.
When We Need Them
As it has all along, Swedish/Ballard can also provide treatments for a vast variety of ailments, injuries and even a few happy events.
Graves proudly noted the Addiction Recovery Unit; a place for those who have chosen, voluntarily, to clean-up and put chemical dependency (to prescription or street drugs) behind them. This unit has 28 active beds, with a strong preference for pregnant women who have chosen to get help and make a fresh start for the sake of their unborn child.
On average, patients stay 26 days, under-going treatment and learning what will be necessary for their success. As these patients are not bedridden, the nurses, doctors and Certified Chemical Dependency Counselors that work in this unit have worked out different field trips for the patients. These explorations further the commitment the patients take to their own recovery.
Addiction Recovery ultimately helps these patients improve their lives, but also benefits the community as a whole, which is why Graves observed about the unit that, “I think it matches with our mission very well.”
Our Community Hospital
“It’s a great community hospital,” Graves stated from the first. Swedish/Ballard provides the most basic, and the most important, of services to our community. And when describing the approach the staff (and the administration) take to these, Graves said, “we are much more patient and family centered in our care.”
“The staff are really deliberate,” she explained, “about quality and safety.” They demonstrate this through their direct care, as well as in the attention given to the surroundings and providing, as Graves pointed out, “a quiet, healthy environment.”
On a tour of the hospital, Graves noted several touches that make patients at Swedish/Ballard feel better, even in the worst moments of their lives. One significant feature – one the medical/surgical floor, the patients all have private rooms with windows. She did not, however, point out that her offices – and those of the other administrators located in her same department – lack any windows or views to the out-of-doors.
They’ve deliberately given the views to patients who come to Swedish/Ballard for treatment, including those who come seeking cancer care from the Swedish Cancer Institute which opened across the street from the main hospital building in early 2011. The Institute provides radiation treatments, including TomoTherapy, as well as providing infusions, transfusions, injections, chemotherapy, etc. all on the same Ballard campus.
Yet, some patients will visit Swedish/Ballard at the best time of their life, particularly at the Family Childbirth Center. In 2012, 953 babies were delivered here – by M.D.s and/or midwives. In addition to offering options for delivery, the Center also allows families to stay in one room through labor, delivery and post-partum care.
In between the two extremes – the best and the worst of medical situations – Swedish/Ballard can also address medical needs. The recent renovations have given them room to establish the Swedish Community Health Medical Home, on the fourth floor of the Medical Center. Here patients can receive team care from physicians in preventative care, as well as treatment of chronic conditions. Patients can now find primary care in a familiar and easy-to-access location, while the physicians have access to laboratories and testing facilities in convenient proximity.
All At Our Hospital
As a nurse, Graves worked at Ballard Hospital in 1990. She later went into administration, and worked 10 years at Virginia Mason. In 2008, she returned, as an administrator, to Swedish/Ballard, “and I felt like I’d come home,” she acknowledged.
No one expects a visit to any hospital to feel like home. Yet the staff at Swedish/Ballard work to make this facility feel comforting for those who come to find health and healing. If you must take a trip to the hospital, it is good to know our ‘community’ hospital is ready.
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©2013 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.