OTHELLO HOSPITAL UPDATE
A quarterly update to the action plan highlights the $37.5 million in operational funds and $125 million endowment set aside for the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic, with a $52 million investment in the Othello location. “As a Black and Indigenous woman who leads this clinic, who is surrounded by other Black and Indigenous people, it is hard to hear that feedback when it's like, well, we are part of the community,” she says.Īt the same time, Bell has kept “99 percent” of her attention on a site that blends elements of a hospital, dental office, and community center. Ben Danielson using a racist epithet.” It also found “significant racial disparities” in hospital security calls, insufficient interpretation and translation services, and “misalignment around OBCC operations,” including with the Othello development.įor Bell, the controversy was difficult to navigate. Seattle Children’s eventually published a summary of the report, which said it “did not adequately investigate or address a 2009 allegation that Dr. attorney general Eric Holder to lead an investigation into Danielson’s allegations but, initially, didn’t release its findings, stoking more outrage. An uproar ensued Seattle Children’s tapped former U.S. Ben Danielson resigned, citing racism at Seattle Children’s. In late 2020, Odessa Brown medical director Dr. Yet, as construction continued, the institution’s commitment to equity was put under the microscope. In 2019, Seattle Children’s broke ground on a second clinic closer to many of its patients, just off the Othello light rail station. But in recent years, three-quarters of the families Odessa Brown serves have moved south as rent and home prices have risen in the neighborhood. In 1970, when the original Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic opened in the Central District, it aimed to address the root causes of pediatric inequities in the heart of Black Seattle. With a gym, nutritionists, social workers, MDs, and behavioral health experts all under one roof, the doctor has marshaled a big-tent approach to treatment at a moment when her institution has faced questions about exclusion. But what animates her work, and the clinic’s, is not a spirit of pickiness but of broad acceptance.
All told, more than 40 works by 20-plus artists canvas the centerpiece of the 3.2-acre Othello Center development.īell sounds like a curator as she describes them.
There’s so much art that Santander can’t even find one of her pieces during a separate walk-through. In the dental office, Blanca Santander’s turtles draw eyes to the ceiling. In the community kitchen, Angie Hinojos’s vibrant Generations has more hues than a produce aisle. In a lobby corridor, Louis Chinn’s Giving Hands greets visitors palms-up.
She’s walking through the new Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic in Othello on Wednesday, explaining how the Seattle Children’s site will integrate different elements of care when its first patients arrive on Monday. Image: Courtesy Odessa Brown Children's Clinicĭr.