Concerns raised at hospital

Published 12:25 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

SNOQUALMIE – The Snoqualmie Valley Hospital was closed to overnight patients for one night last week and its residents transported to other facilities after the city of Snoqualmie and the Washington State Department of Health realized that there was inadequate heat in the building.

An anonymous tip about the hospital’s boilers not working led Snoqualmie police and building officials, along with a representative from the state Department of Health, to the building on Ethan Wade Way on Nov. 3.

Snoqualmie Building Official Jim Tinner said there was inadequate heat in the building and ordered the boiler be fixed by the end of day. When hospital officials realized that deadline could not be met, they made arrangements for five patients to be transported to other facilities or released them early.

Although some of the patients, including those in the hospital’s Senior Behavioral Health Care Unit, had been heating their rooms with space heaters, Tinner said no one was hurt and no laws were broken. Temperature readings in the hospital ranged between 68-74 degrees, and there

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