Planning and construction A
public hospital district was formed by a voter-approved
ballot measure in 1967 to serve northeastern King County, which had experienced population growth that caused strain on existing medical facilities. After the expansion of the existing
Kirkland hospital was found to be impractical due to costs, a site near Totem Lake in northeastern Kirkland was chosen for a new multi-story hospital building. A public contest was held to name the new building, with Evergreen General Hospital announced as the winner in August 1968, defeating 280 other names. In November 1968, voters within the district approved a $4.5 million
bond measure to finance construction of the 82-bed hospital. Construction of Evergreen General Hospital began on July 18, 1970, and it was opened to the public on March 9, 1972. The hospital opened with 80 beds, an
intensive care unit, two surgery rooms, and specialized departments. The building was designed for future expansion of up to seven floors and 375 beds, as well as auxiliary facilities on the campus. The older, privately run Kirkland Hospital had closed in March 1971 after a decline in the number of patients who instead went to the
Overlake Hospital in nearby
Bellevue.
Expansions Following regular overcrowding at the facility in the 1970s, a major expansion to Evergreen General Hospital was constructed in the 1980s. The first expansion added a third floor in 1982 and a fourth in 1984. The hospital also upgraded its
trauma center to Level II requirements set by the
American College of Surgeons to handle cases previously sent to Overlake, which was competing closely with Evergreen, or
Harborview Medical Center in
Seattle. A new north wing was opened in 1986, costing $10.2 million to construct, and added a drive-in emergency care center, a larger trauma center, a cafeteria, and an auditorium. The hospital was renamed to Evergreen Hospital Medical Center after the completion of the new wing. The 1988 hospital expansion's opposition campaign was partially funded by Overlake Hospital's private foundation on the basis of taxpayer obligation. Evergreen instead used reserve funds and bonds to finance a $30 million east wing expansion, consisting of a 36-room maternity center, four surgical suites, outpatient service centers, a
parking garage, and administrative offices in a five-story building that opened in November 1992. The east wing housed the first
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine on the
West Coast, which was installed in January 1993. Evergreen joined a regional healthcare alliance led by
Swedish Medical Center in 1993 and changed its name to Evergreen Community Health Care two years later. The hospital was certified as the first "
Baby-Friendly Hospital" in the United States by
UNICEF in 1996 and was recognized for prioritizing
breast-feeding for newborns. The organization was renamed in 1996 to Evergreen Healthcare Medical Group and began opening primary care facilities around the Eastside in the 2000s. A $120 million bond measure was approved by voters in May 2004 to construct a ten-story tower for overnight stays and surgical facilities. The new tower opened in May 2007 and expanded the emergency department to 42 beds. The system's name was shortened to EvergreenHealth in 2012. EvergreenHealth entered into a partnership with Valley General Hospital in Monroe in 2014, renaming it EvergreenHealth Monroe the following year.
COVID-19 pandemic The first eight identified
U.S. fatalities from the
2020 pandemic of
SARS-CoV-2 were reported at EvergreenHealth Kirkland, beginning with the first on February 29, 2020. The cases were residents or visitors to the
Life Care Center of Kirkland, a local
nursing home. The hospital increased its number of beds in negative-airflow rooms from 15 to 58 as part of its response to the growing number of coronavirus patients; by March 11, 65 people treated at the hospital had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and 15 had died of COVID-19. EvergreenHealth was criticized by its Kirkland employees for not communicating the level of risk posed to them and informing them of infection exposure. By late March, the number of reported cases at the hospital had slowed to less than four per day and the intensive care unit was half-full. The hospital system received $43 million in
CARES Act grants from the federal government in 2020 and 2021, which were used to offset unexpected costs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The grants were counted as part of annual revenue, which triggered bonuses for managers and administrators despite reported operating losses. ==Facilities==