Evergreen Hospital, Home-Care Firm Merge

KIRKLAND - An Eastside hospital and a home-health-care provider have merged to form the Evergreen Community Home Health and Hospice.

The merger of Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Kirkland and Community Home Health Care was announced yesterday by Andrew Fallat, chief executive officer of the hospital, and Margaret Shepherd, founder and executive director of the home-care provider. Shepherd will be executive director for community-health-network development.

"We saw this as an opportunity to bring more comprehensive and specialized care to our community and to build a more integrated home-health-care delivery service," Fallat said.

Services such as the hospital's Care Network and Head Injury Rehabilitation Center, along with Home Health Care's specialized programs dealing with mental health, geriatrics and community support, will be delivered under the new system in King and Snohomish counties.

Last year, a total of 125,000 visits were made by nurses, social workers, home-health aides, mental-health professionals, volunteers, and physical, occupational and speech therapists. And hospice care was provided to more than 525 families.

Offices are in Kirkland, Seattle, Tukwila, Edmonds and

Arlington.