Valley Medical Center’s new Emergency Services Tower – the Margarita Prentice Trauma Center – was dedicated Monday in front of a large crowd of community members, political leaders and hospital staff.
The new seven-story, $115 million South Tower is set to open officially on Feb. 25, after the current emergency room is moved – in one shift – to the third floor of the tower, which is ground level.
The public can tour the tower Saturday at a community open house.
Prentice is a long-time 11th District state legislator who worked at the old Renton Hospital where McClendon Hardware now stands and made the move to then-Valley General Hospital when it was dedicated in 1969.
She praised her fellow medical professionals. “It is our impulse to care for you,” she said.
And she praised the emergency crews who bring the injured to the ER. “They rush into buildings when the rest of us are leaving,” she said.
As a Democratic state legislator, she was a strong advocate for the health-care system, including Valley Medical Center, in the state.
She also served as a Renton school board member.
Prentice was joined by the mayors of some of the cities that are part of Public Hospital District No. 1, including Mayor Denis Law, and hospital administrator Rich Roodman in the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The invocation was given by Pastor Kirby Unti, who called the new tower and especially its Emergency Department, a place of “great healing” and “compassion” that benefits the community and region.
“I want you know we are standing on sacred ground,” he said.
The event was held in the covered bay where ambulances and medic units will offload the injured. Big tents covered the two open ends; they creaked and shook in the morning rainstorm, leaving some to quip whether the ER might get some extra business if the tents folded.
Law was among the mayors present who spoke, welcoming the large crowd to Renton. He said the city is proud to have Valley Medical as one of the city’s key partners.
Valley’s emergency room is one of the busiest on the West Coast, serving about 73,000 patients a year. The hospital will have the capacity to serve about 100,000 patients a year in the new ER.
Besides the Emergency Department with its emergency room, the tower will house the hospital’s critical-care unit, surgery units and hospital rooms and will have two floors left empty for future expansion.
The project, administrator Roodman pointed out, is on-time and under budget.
Tour the ER
The public can tour the new South Tower during an open house 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday at the hospital, 400 S. 43rd St. The tower is right next to South 43rd Street; there is a parking garage below the tower.
The open house will feature tours, free health screenings, wellness information, demonstrations and interactive activities for the entire family.
