Everett Clinic plans Lakewood facility

By late next year, area residents should expect to have a new option in health care available to them. The Everett Clinic broke ground on its planned two-story, 60,000-square-foot, $24 million facility north of 172nd Street NE and west of I-5 on July 21, as Everett Clinic Chief Operating Officer Mark Mantei explained that the 3.6-acre site would serve as the grounds for an even bigger building than their branch in Smokey Point, hosting a broader cross-section of health care services than any Everett Clinic outside of their main offices in Everett itself.

By Kirk Boxleitner • July 27, 2011 1:23 pm
Local patients could walk through the front doors of this building as early as the fall of next year
Local patients could walk through the front doors of this building as early as the fall of next year

LAKEWOOD — By late next year, area residents should expect to have a new option in health care available to them.

The Everett Clinic broke ground on its planned two-story, 60,000-square-foot, $24 million facility north of 172nd Street NE and west of I-5 on July 21, as Everett Clinic Chief Operating Officer Mark Mantei explained that the 3.6-acre site would serve as the grounds for an even bigger building than their branch in Smokey Point, hosting a broader cross-section of health care services than any Everett Clinic outside of their main offices in Everett itself.

“We’re reinventing health care by strengthening the relationship between patients and physicians,” Mantei said. “This clinic embodies that vision.”

Mantei elaborated that this groundbreaking came after a year and a half of planning, including mockups and designs that eventually covered the walls of entire hallways, during which staff members and patients alike were invited to contribute their insights.

Stanwood resident Leah Treml-Ellis currently goes to the Everett Clinic branch in Marysville, but she plans to start going to Lakewood as soon as that facility is open by its target date in the fall of 2012, She attended the groundbreaking because she was one of the patients whose input guided the design of the Lakewood facility.

“They listened to me at every step, even about the smallest things,” said Treml-Ellis, who’d told clinic staff that she preferred to have the weight-scales in the exam rooms rather than out in the hallways, to avoid feeling self-conscious. “They asked me things like where they should put the scales and I wondered why, since I was just excited about the specialist care that the new clinic would be offering. Everybody wants to be heard, and they heard me.”

In addition to a primary care department featuring family and internal medicine, pediatrics and a walk-in clinic open evenings and weekends, the Lakewood facility’s range of specialties is expected to cover neurology, dermatology, allergies, behavioral health, the heart and vascular systems, gastroenterology, orthopedics, podiatry, physical therapy, occupational medicine and gynecology, as well as comprehensive lab services and advanced MRI, CT, ultrasound, mammography and radiology imaging.

“Our goal is to bring our services to our patients, rather than them having to move around,” Mantei said. “We’re even looking to cut down on wait times with self-check-in stations.”

Everett Clinic Chief Executive officer Rick Cooper praised their Smokey Point branch Manager Colleen Clark and Medical Director Dr. Robert Klem for stepping up to take charge of the Lakewood facility.

According to Corporate Communication Director April Zepeda, the Everett Clinic anticipates that its Lakewood branch will schedule 60,000 medical appointments a year for its first three years of operation, and that it will open with 60 employees and expand as needed.