MOSES LAKE — If construction of Samaritan Hospital stays on schedule, the first patients will be treated in the new facility in early March 2026.  

Joe Kunkel, a consultant on the project since its inception, told Samaritan commissioners Tuesday that planning for the move will start soon. 

“We’re not really into transition planning, but if the schedule (holds), 560 days from today we’ll be seeing our first patient,” Kunkel said. 

Consultants started meeting with department managers Wednesday to begin talking about the process of moving from one building to another. 

“When you think about that, that’s getting you ready to see patients in the new building,” Kunkel said. “Not only from a logistical standpoint, but it’s the training. It’s the clinical training, the workflow training and all the parts and pieces that go with it.” 

Department managers and staff are reviewing floor plans, room by room, Kunkel said, to see if equipment and furniture planned for each room is the right stuff.  

“We’ve done it a couple times already. This is our way of making sure that our equipment that we’re bringing over (from the existing facility) and what we’re ordering new is accurate,” Kunkel said.  

The review also provides a check on existing equipment, ensuring that what hospital officials were planning to reinstall in the new facility still works and doesn’t need replacement, he said.  

While it’s still about 18 months away, consultants and Samaritan staff are starting to talk about the actual move from Wheeler Road to Yonezawa Boulevard. Samaritan operations will shift from one location to another in one day.  

“I think there’s anxiety that happens when people start to think about, ‘How are we going to do this?’ How does a move day happen? How do you do that in a day? You do it in a day by preparing for a year,” Kunkel said.  

Samaritan staff will be involved in the planning, he said.  

It’s not just a matter of finishing construction and moving in — hospitals are subject to stringent regulation, and a number of agencies must issue licenses and permits before the building can be occupied. Kunkel listed some of them — construction reviews by the Washington Department of Health, and specific oversight agencies for specific departments like the pharmacy, the laboratory and imaging.  Kunkel said now is the time to start contacting the varying agencies and updating them on the project. 

“We want to get on their radar,” Kunkel said. 

Damon Gardella of the Klosh Group, part of the consultant team, said the interior fireproofing is almost done, which means interior framing can start going up throughout sections of the building where it’s been delayed. 

Employees of various departments throughout the hospital have been coming to the site to look at the actual space and review the proposed placement of equipment and materials, a process called a “box walk.” Gardella said those would continue through November.  

“They’ve been very helpful, very useful,” he said. 

Parking lots are being paved, Gardella said. Kunkel added that landscaping will start on some of the property in September.  

Construction remains on schedule and within the $225 million budget, Gardella said.