New “Forest B” Building Features More In-Patient and Operating Rooms, Cancer and Blood Disorders Care Facilities and more
On June 1st, Seattle Children’s opens the latest addition to the hospital campus — a building called “Forest B.” Forest B is a project over 10 years in the making and will add an additional 310,000 square feet of space to the hospital campus.
“Forest B is a critical addition to Seattle Children’s, given our region’s incredible historic and anticipated growth,” said Mandy Hansen, senior director of planning, design, and construction at Seattle Children’s. “The building gives 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 thoughtful design will also help us integrate more of our breakthrough research into the clinical care environment as we tirelessly work toward cures.”
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
In addition to allowing Seattle Children’s to care for more patients, Forest B was also designed to support transformative, patient-centered care. For children and families, that means starting and ending their journey with ease so they can focus on the care and not the process; providing time and space to decompress and take a breath when they walk through the front door; and having access to the right amenities in the right locations without being overwhelmed with information. For providers and care teams, it means optimizing the work environment so they can focus on patient care and having dedicated amenities and respite spaces so they can step away and recharge.
The interior design of Forest B brings the forest floor to the heart of the city. An interactive trail map in the main lobby guides visitors through campus, starting in the Forest zone and connecting seamlessly to existing services in River, Mountain, and Ocean zones. Artwork, environmental graphics, and wayfinding elements break down the scale of the building to create a sense of calm and comfort.
The new Cancer and Blood Disorder Center (CBDC) space in Forest B features a patient-centric design by employing a “universal room concept” wherein all services are coordinated and come to the patient. Universal rooms are designed to be a patient’s “home” for the day, so they don’t need to wait in multiple lines or lobbies or bring their items to different areas. With a universal room concept:
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 creates efficiencies in scheduling and staffing, allowing us to see more patients.
Many CBDC patients have between three and seven types of appointments in a single day. With universal rooming, patients can receive these services in a single room, rather than having to travel throughout the clinic.
In October, the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant outpatient clinic will move to Forest B from its current home at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. This move will bring all pediatric cancer and blood disorders programs under one roof at Children’s — making it easier for patients and their families to receive the same exceptional and compassionate care from the dedicated teams at Children’s and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center.
The perioperative space within Forest B is designed to prioritize an improved patient experience and to support patient safety. Within Forest B, there will be six general or standard operating rooms, two cardiovascular operating rooms and two cath labs. The perioperative space also uses a one-directional patient flow design so every operating room and cath lab have an attached induction room. This design is intended so patient families can remain with their child during anesthesia. 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.
Areas of Forest B are opening in phases – as of June 1, the Forest B lobby and parking garage are open to the public. For an update on the opening timeline, please visit our website.
