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Leaders at Microsoft and Swedish Health Services, the largest nonprofit health care provider in the Puget Sound, today announced the launch of a digital app that will enable Swedish employees to access real-time data and analytics as part of the system’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The app, called the COVID-19 Emergency Response App (CERA), is the first of its kind at Swedish and was developed by Swedish with assistance from Microsoft. 

Message from Dr. R. Guy Hudson, Swedish CEO 

Over the past several weeks, I have been continually impressed by the community’s outpouring of support for health care providers on the front lines in the coronavirus pandemic, including the 12,000 dedicated caregivers at Swedish. It is often in times of crisis that our humanity, resilience and compassion shine brightest.

To preserve capacity to meet the acute health care needs of our patients, Swedish has decided to temporarily stop elective inpatient and outpatient surgeries for non-life threatening and non-urgent care at our hospital campuses, effective Friday, March 13. This applies to procedures at all our hospital campuses (First Hill, Cherry Hill, Ballard, Issaquah and Edmonds). 

Effective Thursday, March 12 at noon, all routine visiting will be suspended at our hospital campuses until further notice. Additionally, visitors will not be allowed for patients under evaluation for COVID-19 or who have tested positive. Until COVID-19 no longer poses a public health threat, all patients and visitors will be screened.

Swedish returned to the bargaining table yesterday with SEIU 1199NW, which represents many of our nurses and service, technical and professional staff. The bargaining session was held under the auspices of federal mediators who have been engaged, with SEIU’s agreement, to help further our progress in contract negotiations. The mediators recommended yesterday that the two sides exchange new counterproposals through the mediators rather than meet face-to-face, since emotions are still high following the strike. We agreed to their recommendation.

The three-day strike called by SEIU 1199NW ended at 7:30 a.m. today. Swedish is pleased to report that no major safety events occurred during the strike. We are grateful for everyone who ensured safe, quality care for our patients during this time.

On the final day of the three-day strike called by SEIU 1199NW, we are pleased to report that safe, quality care continues and that no major events have occurred during this time. We look forward to bringing caregivers back to work over the next two days as work becomes available, and we are actively notifying caregivers today if they should report to work tomorrow.

Today, on Day 2 of the strike, we do not have any serious incidents to report. Everything is going remarkably well. We are grateful to our medical staff, nursing managers and represented caregivers who chose to come to work. These include technicians who run the equipment and EVS workers who ensure our hospitals are clean and sanitized. 

Safe, quality care continues uninterrupted on the first day of a three-day strike called by SEIU 1199NW at all Swedish campuses. The strike began at 7 a.m. today and will conclude at 7:30 a.m. on Friday, January 31. 

We are deeply grateful that a significant number of represented caregivers made the personal choice to report to work and serve our patients. It is important for our patients, their families and our community to know that they can continue to count on Swedish to provide high-quality, safe and compassionate care during the strike.

Significant clinical and operational planning and coordination will ensure safe, high-quality care

Swedish leaders assured the community today that the not-for-profit health care provider is focused on providing safe care for its patients during the three-day strike called by SEIU 1199NW. However, there will be some temporary adjustments to operations during this period to ensure the care it provides continues to meet the highest standards.