Public invited to tour St. Elizabeth

The public is invited to tour Enumclaw’s new St. Elizabeth Hospital during a community open house event from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday. Guided tours of the emergency department, chapel, operating rooms, birth center, private patient rooms and other features of the state-of-the-art facility will be available.

The Franciscan Health System hospital is at 1455 Battersby Ave. in the heart of Enumclaw. It opens for patient care Feb. 2 and will replace Enumclaw Regional Hospital, which will be razed to make room for additional parking.

“When we began planning St. Elizabeth, we knew the community’s new hospital had to embody elements that reflect the community’s values,” hospital President Dennis Popp said. “We believe our planning team and architects achieved this and more. St. Elizabeth Hospital is destined to be a center of healing and life that the community will be proud to call its own.

“Inside and outside the hospital are design elements that mirror the area’s natural beauty and create a peaceful healing environment,” he added.

St. Elizabeth Hospital is part of the Franciscan Health System, one of the largest and most comprehensive health systems in the state. The connection to Franciscan, Popp said, “means that our patients at St. Elizabeth will receive the best care, close to home. That local care will be supported by resources and expertise available throughout the vast Franciscan organization from the moment patients enter our hospital, through treatment, to their recovery.”

State-of-the-art technology and other features at St. Elizabeth include: sophisticated diagnostic imaging equipment, like the 64-slice computed tomography scanner and 1.5 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging unit; high-definition surgical suites; private patient rooms with inspirational views of the Cascade foothills and the Plateau skyline; and a rooftop helipad for transporting patients who need advanced critical or trauma care.

St. Elizabeth is one of five hospitals in the Franciscan Health System. Others are in Tacoma, Federal Way, Lakewood and Gig Harbor. Franciscan also has primary-care and specialty-care clinics South King, Pierce and South Kitsap counties. Franciscan clinics and providers include Enumclaw Medical Center, Enumclaw Medical Center-Cole Street, Northwest Vascular Center and Franciscan Foot and Ankle Specialists, all found in Enumclaw.

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