EVERETT — The Kaiser Permanente Everett Medical Center was bustling Monday morning as staff settled into their first day at the brand-new facility.

On Tuesday, the center will welcome patients to the new part of its building, a $140 million, 154,000 square-foot addition with new and updated services.

Kaiser Permanente first announced its plans for the expansion in 2019. In 2020, the company purchased three nearby properties for the expansion. It’s part of a $1 billion investment to support new, upgraded facilities throughout Washington.

“It’s great to finally see the fruition of all this time that we’ve really been investing in expanding our capabilities in Everett, bringing more specialties and cementing that work here in Snohomish,” said Michael Vaughan, executive medical director of operations at Washington Permanente Medical Group.

Patients who are used to parking at 2930 Maple St. will now park at 2929 Pine St., where there’s a new, five-story parking garage equipped with bike racks, electric vehicle charging stations and 724 stalls, said Andrea Rich, medical specialties executive consultant at Kaiser Permanente. There’s also parking across the street for larger vehicles.

Entering the facility, patients will see the welcome area, where they can check in for their appointment with a staff member or at a digital kiosk. To the left are four conference rooms, two available for community use and the other two for staff use. The first floor also holds pharmacy lockers, a food area, a blood draw lab and newly added advanced imaging services — including MRI, CT and bone density scans.

Without these services, patients in Snohomish County would have had to travel to Bellevue or Capitol Hill for specific tests or types of care at a Kaiser Permanente facility, Rich said.

“It helps with the commute for folks right here, so now they don’t have to travel as far,” Rich said.

The third floor holds 21 service lines, including six new lines — dermatology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, rheumatology, podiatry and neurology — that were previously housed in Lynnwood. The services are grouped together in “pods.”

“Sometimes when we have our specialties dispersed, they can’t work together,” Vaughan said. “And so with the pods, we’ve really put the teams together that typically cohabitate or work together.”

The facility features member-facing dashboards, where patients can see their wait times update in real time, which are connected to dashboards in each pod. The technology has been vetted in Northern California, the mid-Atlantic and Colorado, Rich said.

“Wait time is available to everybody,” Vaughan said. “Traditionally, clinicians and physicians like to not admit that they’re a little bit behind, but this really gives everybody that opportunity to really make sure we get people on time, and it’s everybody’s responsibility.”

For patients who have upcoming appointments at the new facility, Rich suggested setting aside some time to adjust to the new space and flow.

“I think the goal this week is patience and grace for all of our members as we all kind of navigate this space,” she said. “It’s brand new to all of us, but it’s beautiful, so hopefully they will enjoy it as much as we do.”

Jenna Peterson: 425-339-3486; jenna.peterson@heraldnet.com; X: @jennarpetersonn.

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