Thanks to neighbor Tammy Jo for the picture
Hopefully these new Capitol Hill flowers are not permanent-e.
Neighbors in the CHS Facebook Group have made note of a chintzy new addition to Kaiser Permanente’s Capitol Hill campus just as the health giant is about to embark on $2.5 million in clinical upgrades to its 15th Ave facilities.
“Kaiser on 15th has filled their planters with plastic flowers,” Tim notes. “Not at all tacky.”
Others agreed this may be a case where phony flowers are not better than nothing.
Whether any hospital officials are appreciating the sarcasm is not known. CHS is trying to sort out who at the California-based integrated managed care consortium to contact about the new landscaping.
The strange cost-saving measure comes as Kaiser is preparing major renovations within the main 15th and Thomas hospital complex including a $2.12 million Level 1 overhaul and supply conversions following its announcement that it would hold off on ER billing changes and add 25 inpatient beds, increasing capacity from 18 to 43 across intensive care, telemetry, and medical–surgical units.
Kaiser Permanente’s relationship with the surrounding neighborhood could also use some care. The health provider has been touting efforts to fill its street-fronting spaces with new businesses but the spaces have remained empty over recent years. Meanwhile, its complex surface parking lots remain underutilized neighborhood spaces.
A more than $400 million planned campus overhaul still on the books following Kaiser’s 2017 acquisition of Group Health has also, apparently, been downsized.
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