When Highline Medical Center's new Emergency Room opens, this area will have "the absolute best ER-hands down-anywhere," CEO Mark Benedum boasts.

The new ER and patient care unit will have its grand opening celebration on April 10, and start admitting patients April 13.

Television stars Bob Harper from NBC's "The Biggest Loser" and Grant Goodeve, from KING TV's "Northwest Backroads" will appear at the Saturday event.

Tours as well as a health and activities fair will be conducted from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the new facility, located at 16251 Sylvester Road Southwest in Burien.

The old, cramped ER was built 50 years ago to handle 12,000 patients per year. It has been serving nearly 47,000 annually.

According to assistant administrator Kathleen Fondren, the average time a patient is in Highline's ER is under three hours. The average time from when a patient arrives to when a doctor sees them is 45 minutes.

Those times are under national averages but Highline staffers emphasize the new ER will reduce wait times further while providing a more comfortable environment for patients and staff.

It will have three rooms where patients can be triaged and taken directly to a private treatment room where admitting can be handled bedside.

"It's part of a different culture where we get the patient quickly back to a room and a doctor," Gregory Garcia, M.D., emergency medicine medical director, explains.

The new ER will have 32 treatment rooms as opposed to the old facility's 19 rooms. The new rooms are private with space for family members and universally equipped to handle any emergency.

"The theory is every that room is for every patient," Joe Lotsko, R.N., director of emergency services, said.

Having privacy instead of sharing a room with someone partitioned off with only curtain is important, according to Dr. Garcia.

"It used to be that a patient would have to being telling the most intimate details of their lives with a stranger possibly listening just on the other side of the room," Garcia noted.

Physicians will be able to order tests electronically without leaving the patient's room, Garcia noted. Also patient's medical records are now registered electronically.

The new ER will also have two large adjoining trauma rooms and a state-of-the art hazardous materials decontamination room with a separate, exterior entrance.

On the floor above the ER, a new patient care unit is also opening.

Gina Dolleman, clinical manager for medical tele-oncology, notes the unit is designed for patient-centered care through homelike and welcoming spaces.

The unit includes warm colors and homelike furnishings, barrier-free patient rooms and nursing stations, and wireless medical telemetry.

There are two family rooms. One has a television and kitchen, while the other one is a quiet room for reading or family conferences.

The oncology unit has room to treat 31 patients. The previous unit could handle 26.

The $60 million construction project was partially funded through a Highline Medical Center Foundation capitol campaign that raised $5.7 million from more than 800 donors.

The rest came thanks to a surprising source.

The federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Department guaranteed the sale of tax-exempt bonds.

HUD is usually associated with low-income housing and urban renewal but it also supports community development and jobs creation in the health care field.

Highline is the first hospital in the state to receive the HUD aid, according to Benedum.

He labeled it a "fortuitous decision" to apply for HUD help.

"There probably wouldn't have been a new ER without HUD," Benedum concluded.