Nobody likes to move – it is one of the most stressful things that you can go through. Between packing stuff into boxes, living without the stuff for a few days until you unpack again and then finding it all again in the new location it is no wonder it is ranked way up towards the top of stressful life events. But, we all do it again and again for one reason or another – change of city, needing a bigger space or even downsizing.
So, with all that disruption, how do you manage it in a fertility clinic that is open 7 days a week, 365 days a year and still maintain world class service for your patients? Well, it takes a lot of planning, a lot of coordination, and a very dedicated staff that is committed to making sure that it all happens seamlessly so that patients don’t get disrupted. Add onto that the team of people designing and building out the new space and there is a lot of behind the scenes action going on.
So, just in case you didn’t know yet, we are in the process of moving into a brand new totally state of the art facility towards the end of September. Will you notice that we are moving – probably? Will it affect your treatment in any way shape or form – not at all! You might have to navigate around a few boxes here and there and you will have to learn a new address, but other than that we are going to make it is painless for you as possible.
We have currently been going through months of design and planning meetings to make sure that we are fully utilizing our new space to integrate clinical, laboratory and managerial services together. Once again the center of the space is going to be the IVF clean room which is connected to the two surgical suites and recovery area. All of this is going to be integrated with new ultrasound rooms, consulting rooms, blood draw stations, reception area and sample production suites. The whole clinic is situated on the top floor of a stand alone building within easy access of the I-405.
Given that we are open to patients for all 365 days of the year the real challenge is finding the down time to get all of the equipment moved into the new suite. To accomplish this we are going to have to limit patients to essential appointment only one morning, and then work through the rest of the day for as long as necessary to make sure that the new space is ready to open to see essential patients again the next day.
One of the major challenges is making sure that our blood testing equipment is moved over safely and quickly – that piece of equipment is essential to the ongoing treatment of all our patients. My plan is to start it running in the morning and get all the necessary results back before lunch that day. I will then have to coordinate a technician to prepare the machine for moving, get enough guys who are strong enough to life it into the lab (that is certainly NOT a job for me!) It then has to be moved to the new site, set back up and tested to make sure that it is still operational – all in time to run more of your tests the following morning.
We are all very excited about the new office, and I am especially excited about the new laboratory that I will be getting (plus the fact that my office is going to be larger than a closet and have windows!) Along with that we are going to be getting new incubators which will provide an even more stable environment than we currently have for the culture of your embryos. The HVAC system is also being totally redesigned to be much cleaner and free from volatile organic compounds (VOC’s), which are something that can be detrimental to embryo development.
We are on track to be fully moved into the new space and seeing patients there starting Monday, September 24th! So get ready to celebrate our new space with us! It is going to be awesome!
Our new address (starting September 24th) is:
11232 NE 15th St, Suite 210
Bellevue, Wa 98004
(425) 646-4700
