SILVERDALE -- St. Michael Medical Center unveiled its recently finished 74-bed medical tower for the first time during a ceremony on its Silverdale campus Tuesday, Dec. 9, ending a decade-long relocation of the county’s only-full service hospital.

Looming over the backside of its campus, connected to the main building via a fifth-floor skybridge, the north tower adds capacity that officials with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, the hospital’s parent company, say will ease pressure in its emergency department and expand access to specialty care.

St. Michael is expected to start placing patients in the tower by Dec. 10 on at least the sixth floor, with subsequent floor openings to follow. The new space, VMFH says, will allow for growth in spine surgery, orthopedics, obstetrics, cardiolo

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