One week after officially breaking ground at their new site in the Issaquah Highlands, Swedish Hospital officials gave a presentation to the people of the Plateau on the hospital they plan to build there.

At Sammamish City Hall on Monday night, Swedish Senior Vice President Kevin Brown led an open information session for the public, which included models and drawings of the proposed facility and an outline of the services it will provide.

It was essentially the same information provided to the people of Issaquah at an open house at their city hall last month.

Brown was joined by executive director for Swedish’s operations and development in Issaquah, Chuck Salmon, and medical director for strategic development John Milne, who is also an ER physician and in many ways the public face of Swedish.

There has been great interest in the new hospital, which it is hoped will open, in phases, from July 2011 to March 2012.

Convenient access to quality medical care are obviously high on the list of priorities for local residents.

When it opens about 18 months from now, the hospital will initially provide an ambulatory care center, with 80 hospital beds expected to open in March of the following year.

This will be expanded to 120 beds, with the end goal being to reach the capacity of 175 beds.

Milne described the design as “beds out back” — the emergency care/ambulatory services wing of the building being the main point of entry.

Following the well-attended public information session, Brown, Salmon and Milne then gave a presentation to the city council and city manager Ben Yazici.

As well as providing a more detailed picture on just what the new building will house, most notably extensive ambulatory care and hospital based services, a women’s services center, and cancer treatment facilities, Brown also told the assembled officials that the area could expect significant spin-off effects during the construction and operation of the hospital.

Brown said the hospital would create 1,097 jobs by 2012, mostly in construction, health care and architecture.

He expected more than 200 jobs would be created in 2010.

Milne told the council that a recent study by the University of Washington found that for every $1 a hospital generates, it creates $2.5 dollars of economic activity for the businesses around it.

“In the Highlands, we have already generated interest in retail,” he said. “We talked to (Issaquah Highlands Master Planner) Port Blakely, and they said ‘thank God you put a hole in the ground, because now the retailers are calling.’”

Salmon, whose last name was a source of great amusement for at least one councilor, spoke of the key features of the hospital’s design, which places an emphasis on patients and visitors being able to understand where they are going.

To this end, most of the parking will be on one level, focusing on one common entry and a central foyer area. Seven hundred stalls of free ground-level parking will be available, as well as one level of underground parking for about 160 vehicles.

Salmon said the building would make maximum use of natural light, and would “connect with nature.”

“This will be the most energy efficient facility of its kind in the state, and one of the most efficient in the country,” he said.

But the design will be of some concern to low impact development advocates, particularly those in Sammamish preparing for a development future constrained by strict Department of Ecology regulations on storm water management. The images of the building presented by Swedish on Monday night did not appear to include any green roofs on the five story building, or rain gardens anywhere on the 12.5-acre parcel.

Following the presentation, Brown spoke about the various legal challenges which have disrupted Swedish’s plans for the Highlands.

The development process has been marred by lawsuits and appeals to the state Department of Health (DOH) from a number of medical providers in the area, particularly Overlake Medical Center.

On a number of occasions Overlake sought to revoke Swedish’s Certificate of Need (CoN), a document issued by the DOH allowing the operation of a hospital.

At the beginning of June this year, Overlake filed the latest in a series of motions against the DOH asking the state to revoke Swedish’s CoN.

Brown told the council that although this latest challenge had been dropped, he was disheartened by the lost time and cost of the litigation.

Hospital officials and councilors made special note of the contribution of those citizens who had been a part of the hospital’s community advisory committee, including councilors Jack Barry and Kathy Huckabay, and resident Jim Barry.

“We have had elected leaders and soccer moms helping us along the way,” Milne said.

When asked for input from the council, Councilman Mark Cross suggested to Milne that the city and Swedish could cooperate on transit initiatives between the hospital and the proposed Town Center.

Picking up on the idea of spin offs for the surrounding community, Cross added that the Town Center would be an ideal home for medical office space and to house support facilities.

More info: swedishissaquah.org/ swedishissaquah.org/