Move of 90 staff to Fairview Building geographically unites Clinical Research Division on the Day Campus

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The second floor of the Fairview Building is home to 90 staff from the Clinical Research Division, as the result of a move earlier this month. Photo by Clay Eals

About 90 Clinical Research Division colleagues can now spend a lot less time commuting during their work day.

The staff recently moved out of three different locations and into the second floor of the remodeled Fairview Building on the Day Campus.

"It's exciting to have so many members of the research staff join together on one floor," said Peggy Adams Myers, project coordinator for Long-term Follow-up Research. "We're working on the same things, and it's nice to have contact."

Agnes O'Connor, division administrator, added that the staff's proximity to faculty and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance clinic building will improve day-to-day tasks immeasurably.

"The Center has completed its promise to have everyone in the division united on one campus," she said. "Once we settle in at Fairview, life will be much easier. The efficiencies to be gained by being all on one site hopefully will benefit the staff and the research."

Making the move were Clinical Trial Coordinators, research nurses, Data Management, Long-Term Follow-up Research and the Puget Sound Oncology Consortium. Since many came from leased offices on First Hill, their arrival at Fairview moved the Hutch one step closer to consolidating all its activities on the Day Campus.

"All of the people who made the move have been very cooperative and appreciative of our effort to get them moved in and set up in spaces that will work for them," said Adams Myers, who served as staff liaison to the Facilities Planning and Construction Department during the move.

Most of the 90 staff moved from Eklind Hall, and a few came from the Madison Tower. Long-term Follow-up came from the Thomas Building.

The biggest adjustment for many people will be working in an open-office environment instead of offices, Adams Myers said. While some managers will have separate offices, cubicles account for most of Fairview's second-story space. A kitchen and staff lounge look out over Lake Union. Facilities Engineering occupies the building's first floor.

Data management

Managing patient data is the focus of the clinical research staff who moved to the Fairview Building. Given the open work environment on the second floor and the confidentiality of data, no patients will be seen there, and access will require a key card. A phone system soon will be installed at the front door so visitors can call for entry. Until then, visitors can call from the Thomas Building across the street.

Besides uniting colleagues under one roof, the move to the Fairview Building provides some relief for the Center's space crunch. Space formerly occupied by division staff in the Thomas Building will be renovated to provide additional faculty offices. However, there's little wiggle room in the Fairview Building. The 90 staff who have already moved there consume virtually all of the space.

The move occurred in two stages because of temporary elevator malfunctions.

O'Connor praised Hutch administrative departments - including telecommunications, security, transportation, desktop support, material management and engineering - for insuring a smooth move.

"They all were terrific, positive and accommodating," she said.

Not all of the news out of the division these days involves moving. Data Management is busy scanning research files to complete an Optical Web Library (OWL), said Adams Myers. The library, which will be completed in June, enables researchers to retrieve files by computer instead of having to obtain paper copies. For more information about OWL, call Linda Glockling at Ext. 4728.

In addition, Long-term Follow-up Research has implemented a data collection system that indexes key data and standardizes the way information is gathered from physicians and patients. Together, those two improvements will make data more useful to researchers, Adams Myers said.

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