Good evening. My name is Chad Krilich. I am a family physician. It is a privilegeto come before and speak on the behalf of MultiCare Health System and our projecthere in Covington. I was born in Tacoma, WA and recall driving along highway 18 as atwo lane road to make my way across the pass. At that time, I also recall all too oftenseeing accidents that would require emergency services. Many things have changedfrom that time to now. Covington is clearly a city on the rise, and I hope to share myexperiences with you as a doctor and father which may provide more insight to thechoice before you on whether to build an emergency department at the proposedthe town center.Currently, I work as the Associate Medical Director for Primary Care and UrgentCare services in South King County. While providing physician leadership, I also havethe opportunity to continue providing care for patients. Much of time when I startedthis job approximately two years ago was spent at the Covington Urgent Care. It isclear that this community needs an emergency department and hospital. All that ittakes is one shift in our urgent care and the need of this community is apparent.Whether it is the with patient with severely displaced fracture after skiing up on thepass or the gentlemen who comes in upon his wife’s encouragement to have his chestpain evaluated; we need to facilitate a higher level of care for the community of Covington.One day a week I now see patients in Gig Harbor where I currently reside. TheMultiCare facility in Uptown is beautiful. My wife Julie and our two kids, Drew and Alli,have made many a trip there for lunch, dinner, and/or ice cream. It is a great to seefriends and colleagues as we walk around. Knowing of the level of care patients needin Covington casts a different picture on this setting.For one, knowing what a town center feels like, it would be disappointing forCovington accept the concept of having an emergency department presentin a TownCenter. Seeing and reading what our colleagues have done with a free-standingemergency department in Issaquah is astounding. That being said, I would not be tooenthusiastic about“sirens blaring”lights flashing”and patients rushing into the Town
Centeras was stated in the US News and World Report article in route to a higher levelof care
. This would be an occurrence that would likely happenat leas eighttup tofourtimes a day. Clearly, this supports why we do not see emergency departments intown centers across the nation. That is not what I would imagine for my family as wespend a day at our town center whether it be in Gig Harbor or Covington.Going forward, I am thrilled about our opportunity to provide for Covington.Having already been an anchor of urgent care services for 33,000 patients annually, welook forward to providing more access in the future. Whether by leveraging ourexpertise in electronic health records which is regarded throughout the nation or
1
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2008/09/17/need-the-emergency-room-skip-the-wait.html
of 00
Krilich_MultiCare
203 Reads
Info and Rating
| Category: | Uncategorized. |
| Rating: | |
| Upload Date: | 06/10/2010 |
| Copyright: | Attribution Non-commercial |
| Tags: |
Leave a Comment