Look out the window! Construction has begun on the new Kennewick General Hospital facility in Southridge off 395 in Kennewick, an excellent and convenient location for medical care.
The current Hospital, located off 10th in downtown Kennewick is more than 60 years old. The waiting rooms are small and overcrowded, not nearly adequate for our growing city.
Kennewick is growing and so is the need for medical care. Over the past 4 years, the hospital has hired 36 new physicians and in 2011, KGH served 40,693 patients. The walk-in, after-hours pediatric clinic – the only one in the area – served 2,684 patients.
This new facility will allow KGH to continue to provide more patients rooms and departments to ease the overcrowding in the current location, as well as increase service availability in other departments, such as ER, Surgery and Birthing.
The new facility will be 200,000 Sq. Ft. and have 74 beds and will be three stories high. This extra room will allow for the Emergency Room to increase in size from 14 to 27 rooms, in addition the Intensive Care Unit which will double from 6 beds to 14.
The new facility will have a medical office building with physician’s services that is expected to open before the main hospital.
Construction of the new facility will create 250 living wage construction jobs. Once the facility is open, it will create more than 100 new, permanent jobs.
Construction is estimated to take 24 months at a cost of $112 million.
Great news all around for the Tri Cities!