The new Swedish Facility that is being built at the Issaquah Highlands will have centralized communication systems, which would greatly reduce the waiting time at hospital emergency rooms.
New Swedish Facility
Dr. John Milne, the Vice President for medical services at the facility, stated that the idea behind implementing the communication system is to eliminate wastage of time in the system. He claimed that the new facility will average only 90 minutes for each appointment when compared to a state-wide average of three hours.
At the new facility, there will be only one central hub, through which all the sections would communicate. The facility is concentrating on improving EKG monitoring as well. The Executive Director for operations, Chuck Salmon, explained that they would implement wireless monitoring systems, which would communicate the status of the patients to the central communication system. Additionally, the central communication hub could serve as an incident command center when any disaster breaks out. The facility would house advanced robotics equipment for performing surgeries. The director of interventional services, Susan Terry, mentioned that all the surgery rooms are minimally invasive and enable surgeons to control the surgical equipment remotely. Terry added that about 30 surgeons at the facility are qualified to operate the robotic equipment. By using robots in performing surgeries, human error is minimised greatly and blood loss is maintained at a very low. level. The facility would initially have one operating room containing robotic equipment and they plan to increase the number gradually.
Some of the additional facilities offered are LCD screens, through which patients can order food, foldable beds for those who stay overnight with the patient, a retail area, which sells toys and a café.