Overlake among those protesting

By WENDY GIROUX

Reporter Newspapers

A judge has adjourned a hearing in the appeal of the certificate of need issued to Swedish Medical Center for a new 175-bed hospital in the Issaquah Highlands.

The matter is on hold while the judge determines what the scope of the hearing should be, said Brian Grimm, an attorney with Dorsey & Whitney working on Swedish’s behalf.

“It became clear that the parties had a key disagreement as to what the scope of the hearing was,” Grimm said.

Four hospitals, Bellevue’s Overlake Medical Center, Snoqualmie Valley Hospital, Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center and Evergreen Healthcare, appealed the certificate of need, contending that the project will squeeze all of the available beds into just one location in Issaquah.

Overlake officials are waiting for the hearing to move forward, spokeswoman Karen Johnson said.

“We’ve been serving the Eastside communities for a long time. We’re committed to the Eastside and the residents here,” Johnson said.

Heidi Aylsworth, now the administrative director for orthopedics at Swedish, but formerly involved in developing Swedish’s plans for Issaquah, said that hospital officials are moving forward with the master planning for the 17.88-acre site in the Highlands.

“We’re just staying the course with the assumption that we will be granted all 175 beds,” Aylsworth said. “We knew it would be a long, litigative process and we know that tends to ebb and flow in different directions.”

The judge is expected to rule on the hearing’s scope by May 19.