A specialized water system at MultiCare Mary Bridge Children's Hospital failed quality checks, forcing the $480 million Tacoma facility to cap daily surgeries and reschedule children's procedures less than three months after opening.
MultiCare disclosed the cause Wednesday, Aug. 5, after days of vague statements about a "facility issue" that left families without answers. The News Tribune first received a tip about canceled surgeries on July 31, five days before the hospital named the water system as the problem.
The failure involves a high-purity water system in the hospital's sterile processing department. Surgical instruments require a final rinse with water meeting strict federal standards before steam sterilization. Routine monitoring showed the system fell short, and the hospital pulled all instrument trays from circulation.
Staff are now shuttling trays across the street to MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital for reprocessing. That workaround has slowed instrument turnaround and forced the children's hospital to limit how many surgeries it performs each day.
MultiCare has not said how many patients have been affected, what specific parameter failed, or when full surgical capacity will resume.
The hospital emphasized that its drinking water remains safe. Tacoma Public Utilities confirmed separately that the municipal supply to the building meets all state and federal standards. The problem is confined to the specialized purification system installed for instrument processing.
$480 million facility opened in May
Mary Bridge Children's Hospital opened May 16 at 305 South L St., at the corner of MLK Jr. Way and Division Avenue. Pediatric transport teams moved 61 patients from the old facility at Tacoma General into the new 250,000-square-foot building that day.
The project cost $480 million, up from an original $344 million estimate, after pandemic-era supply chain problems drove up construction costs.
Mary Bridge is Western Washington's only Level II Pediatric Trauma Center and serves more than 100,000 children annually.
Jeff Poltawsky, president of Mary Bridge Children's Hospital & Health Network, said at the hospital's May 16 opening that the facility "comes at a critical moment as we expand to meet growing demand for children's specialty care."
What's next
MultiCare has offered no timeline for repairs. The hospital has not identified the type of system that failed or whether it involves reverse osmosis, deionization or another purification technology.
On Aug. 4, the day before disclosing the water system cause, MultiCare acknowledged only that it was managing a facility issue limiting scheduled procedures. Families with upcoming surgeries should expect direct contact from the hospital about rescheduling.
