By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The hill has 21,000 jobs, most in the health field. First Hill has the highest concentration of medical jobs in the region, helping to explain the neighborhood's nickname: Pill Hill.

Working next to so many hospitals carries a fringe benefit: food. "I am quite a connoisseur of hospital food and Swedish (Medical Center) has the best cafeteria," jokes Gary Euse, who manages Summit Optical's frame shop. "People might not think it's very good, but at Swedish it's excellent."

First Hill's hospitals not only are important to Seattle and Western Washington but they are known internationally. Patients fly to Seattle from around the world for treatment at Virginia Mason Medical Center, Providence Medical Center or Swedish, which is the city's largest medical center, covering 13 city blocks and employing 5,750.

Duane Dobrowits, executive director of international patient services at Swedish, says last year the hospital had 500 in-patients who came from outside the country.

"We do a lot of orthopedics -- I have a 'knee' coming in next week from Russia -- and organ transplants, epilepsy surgery and cardiac surgery," says Dobrowits. "I guess if you want it done right you go to the best place, wherever it is."

Dobrowits' staff takes care of everything a visiting patient might need: interpretive services, airline tickets, a limousine ride to the airport.

He bought a world map so hospital staff would know where patients were from. And they had to learn some new cultural dos and don'ts.

It would be a mistake, for example, to send an even number of flowers to a hospitalized Russian. Dobrowits says even-numbered flower bouquets are for funerals only. And Indonesian hospital guests might consider it an insult if you cross your legs so that your feet point toward them.

The expansion of Swedish Medical Center, founded in 1910 by Swedish immigrants, has greatly changed the character of First Hill. The hospital in recent years has spent between $20 million to $30 million a year on construction and upgraded medical equipment.

Also growing is Virginia Mason, which recently teamed up with Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound. Virginia Mason recently announced it will build a $21 million, five-story research center at the northwest corner of Ninth Avenue and Seneca Street.

The non-profit hospital, founded in 1920, also owns seven acres of land on First Hill, including three 1920-vintage apartment buildings. Two of them -- Hudson Arms and Northcliffe -- will be razed should Virginia Mason expand eastward, though it has not made any firm decisions to do so.

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