Meeting the Needs of a Growing Region
Forest B: Expanding Hospital Capacity
Seattle Children’s is growing so more kids can get the quality care they need and deserve.
The Forest B building is a 310,000-square-foot addition to Seattle Children’s hospital campus. It will expand the hospital’s clinical space and allow us to treat more patients to meet the growing demand for our services in the region.
Beginning June 1, 2022, the Forest B entrance will serve as the new front door to our hospital campus. Patients and families can access it easily through the new Forest B underground parking garage.
With eight floors above ground, one below ground and three levels of underground parking, patients visiting the new building will experience:
- Eight new operating rooms (ORs)
- Two catheterization labs
- 20 additional inpatient rooms
- New outpatient clinical space for the Cancer and Blood Disorders Center (CBDC)
- Outpatient infusion center
- Additional retail pharmacy and new inpatient pharmacy
- New laboratory space and new sterile processing space
Forest B’s innovative operational design will transform patient care at the hospital. The new building supports Seattle Children’s Strategic Plan for growth and provides a modern clinical facility with the technology and space to allow for greater collaboration between research and clinical care, particularly for cancer patients, and bring the latest innovations in care to the bedside.
Image: Family area in CBDC clinic
The new ORs and catheterization labs are designed with an induction room, allowing patient families to remain with their child for more time before a surgery or procedure. Allowing patients to spend more time with their families prior to undergoing a surgery or procedure has been shown to reduce patient stress and has the potential to improve patient outcomes.
Image: Induction room
The new histology and pathology laboratories are located in close proximity to the ORs to support our most complicated surgical cases. The new design facilitates the conversation between the surgeon and pathologist in real time, allowing faster processing of specimens and reducing the amount of time a patient is sedated in the OR.
Image: Surgery entrance
The new CBDC clinic’s patient-centric design provides a universal room where all services are coordinated and come to the patient. Multidisciplinary team and consult visits, blood draws, infusion and follow-up tests are done in one space. The new design reduces the amount of time patients spend at the hospital and also creates efficiencies in scheduling and staffing.
The Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant outpatient clinic is moving to Seattle Children’s from its current home at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance in December 2022. Families will continue to receive state-of-the-art care from the same care team.
Image: CBDC universal room
By redesigning the way sterile instrumentation is managed after a surgery or procedure, the team has reduced the processing time from 24 hours to less than 10 hours. This change saves staff time, improves quality, reduces the amount of redundant instrumentation and creates efficiencies in how we schedule surgeries.
Image: South sterile corridor
The new outpatient pharmacy will focus on providing all discharge and emergency department (ED) medications. The pharmacy’s location near the ED and inpatient units makes it easy to access, and the new design provides private spaces for educating families on proper dosing of medications.
Help Build the Space to Provide More Care to More Kids
Seattle Children’s has grown steadily over the years, but it’s not enough to keep up with the demand. To meet the needs of critically ill kids, we must grow. And we need your help. Your gift to Forest B will give our care teams the space they need to provide lifesaving and life-changing treatments, surgeries and procedures to even more patients in the coming years. The thoughtfully-designed building will also help us integrate more of our breakthrough research into the clinical care environment as we tirelessly work toward cures. With your help, we’ll have the space and tools we need to help even more kids.
- Donate online: Check “Other” and specify the Forest B project.