Kittitas County

Kittitas County Public Hospital District No. 2, Kittitas Valley Healthcare, and Swedish Health Services have agreed to location changes that will allow for greater collaboration between upper county medical resources and an expansion of services to the community.

Kittitas Valley Healthcare will relocate KVH Urgent Care – Cle Elum into the building on 1st Street that currently houses Swedish Cle Elum Primary Care.  Swedish Health Services will move into the current KVH Urgent Care – Cle Elum space at 201 Alpha Way, which is owned by Hospital District 2 and leased by Kittitas Valley Healthcare. 

The building on 1st Street will provide a location that is better suited for an urgent care facility than the existing location.  KVH Urgent Care – Cle Elum will maintain its current hours of 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., daily, and increase staffing levels.

Swedish will discontinue primary care services at its current location on November 22.

“It’s been our privilege to provide primary care to Kittitas County for the past six years,” said Jim Cunningham, Administrative Director of Primary Care for Swedish. “We’re now looking forward to bringing new specialty services to the community in 2018.”

The sequence of moves will allow urgent care to provide uninterrupted service to the community.  Kittitas Valley Healthcare will move the urgent care service to the 1st Street location in January 2018.  Swedish plans to begin offering specialty care and telehealth services in the Alpha Way location as of February 2018.

“We are pleased that the entire medical community is working together to ensure that patients have access to the best care,” said Floyd Rogalski, President of the Board of Commissioners for Kittitas County Public Hospital District No. 2.  “We appreciate the diligence and dedication of all parties who have worked to arrange this collaboration.”

Kittitas County Public Hospital District No. 2 has entered into a discussion with Kittitas Valley Healthcare and Swedish Health Services regarding a unique future collaboration.

The three entities are considering a move which would allow Kittitas Valley Healthcare to relocate KVH Urgent Care – Cle Elum into the building on 1st Street that currently houses Swedish Primary Care – Cle Elum.  Swedish Health Services would move into the current KVH Urgent Care – Cle Elum space at 201 Alpha Way, which is owned by Hospital District 2 and leased by Kittitas Valley Healthcare. 

KVH Urgent Care – Cle Elum is outgrowing its current location. The building on 1st Street would provide additional space for patient care in a location that is better suited for an urgent care facility.  The facility would maintain its current hours of 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., daily, and increase staffing levels.

A move by Swedish Health Services into the building on Alpha Way would allow Swedish to focus on specialty care and telehealth services that are not currently available in the area.  Primary care services would no longer be offered in Cle Elum by Swedish Health Services. 

In addition, Swedish has proposed expansion of the Global to Local (G2L) program into Cle Elum and Upper Kittitas County.  G2L is a nationally recognized non-profit organization that develops programs and interventions to improve health, lower the cost of care, and empower underserved communities across the country. Communities affected by health disparities are diverse and widespread—women, people of color or poverty, immigrants and refugees—and exist both in rural and urban spaces. G2L’s objective is to adapt programs on a local level, share learnings, and replicate its work across organizations and clinics nationwide. G2L’s key tools include activating local community leadership; using technology to overcome barriers and increase access to care; generating campaigns around community-identified health issues; empowering community-based organizations; linking health with economic development; and linking clinical care with public health and social services.

“We have a decades-long relationship of collaboration with Kittitas Valley Healthcare for primary care and urgent care services in our community, and Swedish Health Services has just marked 10 years of providing care in our community” said Floyd Rogalski, President of the Board of Commissioners for Hospital District 2.  “This proposal is the very definition of collaboration, with the entire medical community working together as a team to ensure that patients have access to the best care.”

Hospital districts are charged with tailoring their services to meet the unique needs of their individual communities.  Collaboration and adaptability can maximize access to healthcare providers, which can be an incredibly scarce labor force in rural areas.

Discussions will continue in the coming months, with a goal of finalizing agreements for facility use in the near future.

National Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Week will be celebrated this year from May 21 through May 27.

Emergency Medical Services field responders can be volunteers or career employees.  They include:

• Emergency medical responders like volunteer firefighters.  These responders have at least 80 hours of training.  They can assess patients, provide CPR, and can bandage or splint an injury.
• Emergency medical technicians have at least 150 hours of training.  EMTs can perform the duties of an emergency medical responder and can give aspirin, epinephrine, or assist a patient with their own prescribed medications.
• Paramedics have at least 2500 hours of training.  Under the order of the county medical program director, paramedics can give 40 different types of medications.  They can also intubate a patient to open an airway.

Upper Kittitas County has a mix of volunteers and career employees.  Those who work for Upper Kittitas County Medic One are paid staff members, and each ambulance has at least one paramedic on board to provide advanced life support.  Advanced life support includes 12-lead EKG monitoring to identify heart attacks and transmit information to the hospital before arrival, intubation to assist with breathing, and the ability to provide certain medications.

In 2016, Upper Kittitas County Medic One responded to 1,219 calls for service and transported 766 patients.

Please join Kittitas County Public Hospital District No. 2 in thanking the volunteer and career first responders of Kittitas County during National EMS Week.