Hundreds of students, staff, elected state and local officials, and even several former Lake Washington Institute of Technology presidents gathered in the lobby of the school’s new state-of-the-art Allied Health Building for a grand-opening ceremony on Sept. 14.

The new 83,000-square-foot, three-story building features classrooms, laboratories, offices, clinical facilities and a lecture hall that will be a major boon to allied health studies.

“We are gathered in one of the state’s most technologically advanced, cutting-edge polytechnic education buildings here at Lake Washington,” said Dr. David Woodall, LWIT interim president.

He noted that the new classrooms and laboratories simulate actual hospital settings and will provide the backdrop for training that will help meet the regional demand for nursing and allied health employees.

“We’ve incorporated the latest in technology in this building, cameras that broadcast images to the classroom, allowing faculty and students to observe, review and learn in ways they haven’t been able to do before,” said Woodall.

He also recognized and thanked three former LWIT presidents who attended the event: Dr. Donald Fowler (1980-1999), Dr. L. Michael Metke (1999-2007) and Dr. Sharon McGavick (2007-2011).

Speaking on behalf of Gov. Chris Gregoire, advisor Leslie Goldstein said the new building is a “concrete example of the future of education, focusing on students and partnerships.”

The $35 million facility, which broke ground in October of 2009, was funded through a partnership between LWIT ($26 million) and the Washington Network for Innovative Careers (WaNIC) ($9 million).

WaNic is a consortium of seven K-12 school districts offering high school students the opportunity to take college-level courses. Programs are open to students in the seven member districts: Bellevue, Issaquah, Lake Washington, Mercer Island, Northshore, Riverview and Snoqualmie Valley.

As a component of the partnership, WaNIC’s new skills center, focused on allied health, is co-located in the new building.

“This day has been a long time coming,” said Larry Francois, superintendent of the Northshore School District. “I couldn’t be happier to see our students finally be able to access their WaNIC programs in this wonderful new facility.”

He thanked state representatives for their “vision and perseverance” of the project, despite recent economic pressures.

“Those of us in education know how difficult change can be and how challenging it can be to sell others on an innovative idea that breaks with tradition,” said Francois. “The concept of a high school skills center made up of a series of satellite campus programs and essential core housed and co-hosted in a shared facility at a technical institute, breaks the mold of the skill centers that have existed in our state for over 30 years.”

He added the programs and opportunities available in the new building will benefit high school students throughout the seven school districts.

LWIT offers allied health programs in nursing, medical assisting, dental assisting, dental hygiene, massage, physical therapist assisting, occupational therapy assisting and funeral service education (the first in Washington State), serving more than 350 full-time students annually.

For students like Autumn Larson, the new Allied Health facility means more opportunities.

“It’s amazing,” said Larson, who’s been in the Medical Assisting Program for about a year. “Our old classrooms had exam tables and the classroom in the same room. And there’s cameras in all the exam rooms so they (teachers and students) can watch us do exams.”

She said the new facility will also simulate a true working environment.

“When we did our phlebotomy class, everyone would gather around to watch you poke your arm and stuff and now they have a whole lab just for phlebotomy and diagnostics. So it’s just amazing,” said Larson, of Kirkland.

Marti Garrels, Medical Assisting Program coordinator, was excited to speak about the possibilities the new Allied Health facility will offer the community. She said there’s a possibility the medical assisting clinic could become an actual clinic open to the community.

The school has offered informal screening clinics in the past, “but to actually connect with the community physicians and physicians assistants and really offer a full service where a patient could actually come in yearly for a physical – we’d be a really good screening-type clinic,” said Garrels.

She pointed to the clinic’s four exam rooms, including a pediatric room equipped with infant-sized dummies and exam tables, and a procedure room with the latest EKG and spirometry equipment.

“If you look, we have all the latest in all of our diagnostic equipment and our exam rooms are fully equipped. So a full exam could take place in these rooms,” said Garrels.

She added the new medical assisting clinic “lends itself wonderfully to allow the students to do the whole patient processing from checking them in, to rooming them, to assisting, to following up with the tests and even education, like if they need more information about what’s wrong, medical assistants are trained to help the patient understand what is going on.”

In the old facility, Garrels said there were four exam tables separated by curtains. In addition to the private exam rooms, the new facility also includes a reception area with a check-in desk.

“There was no reception area, so it could never have been turned into a true clinic like it can now,” she said. “And the lab was just non-existent – it was just a shelf.”

She pointed to the new lab area, with cabinets full of analyzers, testing instruments and microscopes.

And then there’s emergency preparedness.

“If we had a major disaster, our whole building could become a satellite to help hospitals with their overflow needs,” said Garrels, laughing. “I mean, I’m dreaming here, but the possibility is a huge deal.”

Elsewhere in the new facility, Lisa Rosewall assisted with community tours of the funeral service education classrooms and labs during the event.

A first-year student in the funeral program, Rosewall said when the building opens up to students this week, it will also be her first time out of the classroom and doing hands-on work.

“It’s pretty serendipitous because now I’m going to be jumping in right when everything’s opening up, hence the excitement,” said Rosewall, of Seattle.

What excites her most about the new building?

“The embalming room – hands down,” she said. “There’s three different tables, so three different groups can be working at the same time and each of the tables are set up to the ideal standards, like the ventilation is perfect, the drainage is perfect – everything is what you would be looking for in a job later.”