Sacred Heart expansion brings state-of-the-art technology to Inland Northwest region

West Tower to open later this month

SPOKANE — Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Wash., announced the opening of its new seven-story West Tower Sunday, the largest medical expansion in the area since 1971.

For Columbia Basin hospitals and patients, the new facility will offer people another place to receive further medical care.

"Traditionally we have had an excellent relationship with Sacred Heart, and while we have not used their new facilities, they will certainly enhance services available to patients that we need to transfer," said Dr. Jeffrey Evans, a emergency room physician at Samaritan Hospital.

Sacred Heart also shares their Medstar helicopters with Samaritan when providing airlift and transfer services to patients.

"Forty-seven percent of babies in our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit are flown in by MedStar from outlying regions," said Maureen Goins Public Relations Director at SHMC.

The West Tower helps to combine services that once were scattered across the hospital's campus.

Maternity care, including outpatient services and an enlarged Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, women's health programs, an updated surgery center and additional operating rooms are all located in the West Tower.

On Aug. 30 the Surgery Center, equipped with 20 new operating rooms, began performing surgeries for the first time and later this month the remainder of the West Tower will be open for use.

"The new surgery center not only has larger, more comfortable, practical spaces, it increases the precision of surgery," said Dean Martz, MD, neurosurgeon. "It allows me to give my patient 100 percent of my attention, all the time."

With the new technology surgeons are now able to view a patient's lab or X-ray results while operating and can take pictures of a procedure to send to other physicians.

"Sacred Heart now has one of the most technologically-advanced surgery centers in the country," said Skip Davis, CEO of Sacred Heart Medical Center and Providence Health Care.

On the main floor, outpatient programs for women include a wellness center for massage therapy, a meditation room and resource library, as well as mammography and bone density screenings.

"Our primary goal is to help women adapt to the changes they experience through each stage of their life's journey," said Sherry Maughan, director of the Women's Health Center.

In June of 2002 the ground breaking for the $100 million project began, and when fully completed later this month the campus will occupy a total of more than two million square feet.

"We're ahead of schedule and under budget," said Michael Wilson, president and chief operating officer for the medical center.

Sacred Heart is the second largest hospital in the state and the largest medical center between Seattle and Minneapolis.