Medical treatment options expanding
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 7 months AGO
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | January 19, 2022 1:05 AM
Medical treatment options in the Moses Lake area continue to expand, and will keep expanding, adding to the health care services available for residents and employers in a broad region.
Confluence Health opened a new specialty clinic in Moses Lake, and is partnering with the Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation on a new radiation treatment facility. Funding for a new Samaritan Hospital was approved, and construction is set to begin in 2022.
Samaritan Hospital
Samaritan Healthcare officials announced in September 2021 the organization received a $136 million loan package from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to build a new hospital. The current hospital, at 801 E. Wheeler Road, in Moses Lake, serves patients from across Grant County and beyond.
The hospital district is contributing $27 million to the project, including $10 million in land. The project is estimated to cost about $156 million, including equipment and furnishings.
The new hospital is located at the intersection of Yonezawa Boulevard and Clover Drive. Construction is scheduled to take about two years, beginning in 2022.
The building will be about 160,000 square feet and three stories high. The building is designed so the second and third floors are a little smaller than the floor below.
Hospital commissioners voted to build a new 50-bed hospital in October 2018. A design was completed by late 2019, and the construction bid documents were under review when the coronavirus pandemic stopped work on the project.
The architects reviewed the design to incorporate the lessons learned from the pandemic and any changes in the building codes.
Confluence Health
Adding to its presence in Grant County, Confluence Health officials opened the Moses Lake Specialty Care Services clinic for optometry, general surgeons and vascular surgery in June 2021. The clinic, at 1345 Yonezawa Blvd., also has room for other Confluence specialists visiting Moses Lake.
The building, 7,000 square feet, has 12 exam rooms, each designed to be flexible and provide more room for doctors and patients.
It includes a “procedure room,” for outpatient treatment and space for clinic staff to conduct tests like ultrasound.
The project cost about $3 million, including construction, equipment and furnishings.
Confluence has long had a large facility on East Hill Avenue in Moses Lake.
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