Seattle Children’s has completed the latest step in the installation process of our new air handling unit. That installation work required us to temporarily shut down all the operating rooms (ORs) at the hospital.
After extensively cleaning the ORs and performing air testing this past week, we have reopened three ORs we had previously been using that already have in-room HEPA filtration. Ten of our ORs will remain closed until the end of January 2020 to allow for installation of the new HEPA filtration systems in each of those rooms.
We will continue our extended operating hours at the hospital and Bellevue Clinic and Surgery Center. This will allow us to serve more patients in our available ORs while we continue work to reopen those that are closed; we will also perform some surgeries at partner hospitals.
Please note that additional work will need to occur before the new air handling unit can be activated — we will not begin using it until the end of January.
How should we refer patients with possible surgical needs?
Please continue to refer patients by calling our ED Communications Center at 206-987-8899. We will review potential surgical patients on a case-by-case basis with the appropriate surgical specialists and with our Surgeon-in-Chief. We still expect to have capacity for emergency cases. We will continue to divert some cases to other local hospitals and perform additional surgeries at our Bellevue Clinic and Surgery Center.
For more information, read our complete FAQ for providers.
Providers who would like to speak with Seattle Children’s leadership team directly should contact Dr. Jeff Ojemann, Seattle Children’s surgeon-in-chief (206-987-2544 or [email protected]).
If you have an urgent clinical concern, please call the Provider-to-Provider Line at 206-987-7777 and ask to speak to the specific surgical service on call.
