New hospital to serve Utah, Salt Lake counties

The owner of St. Mark's Hospital announced Wednesday it will build a hospital in Draper to serve the fast-growing communities in southern Salt Lake County and northern Utah County.

The $100 million, 82-bed community hospital will open in 2007.

The new hospital will include an emergency department, women's center with state-of-the-art birthing suites, orthopedics, cardiology, diagnostic imaging, an outpatient surgery center and physicians' office building, according to Deb Reiner, spokeswoman for owner MountainStar Healthcare.

Reiner said the hospital will have about 500 employees and a medical staff of more than 200 physicians within the first few years. Some of the physician's offices will be satellite offices for doctors already established at St. Mark's.

MountainStar Healthcare is doing preliminary work and will formally break ground early next year, with a targeted opening date of fall 2007, Reiner said.

Some highly specialized services such as open-heart surgery will continue to be performed at St. Mark's, instead of at the new hospital. But that will be the exception. "Our philosophy is, a hospital in a community should provide care there and not necessarily feed" back into an affiliated hospital elsewhere, Reiner said.

The 40-acre hospital campus is located at 11800 S. State , immediately north of the VF Factory Outlets shopping area.

No name has been selected for the new hospital, but Reiner predicts the affiliation with St. Mark's will be clear. They're currently "surveying to find a name that works," she said. An administrator will also be appointed later.

Draper Mayor Darrell Smith said he's excited about the project. "We have the need for a health care center, and the location is very good . . . accessible and visible and easy to find." He said the city is anxious to assist MountainStar "in any way possible."

Reiner said the new hospital expects to serve residents of Draper, Riverton, Bluffdale, Herriman, Sandy, South Jordan, Highland and Lehi.

MountainStar will also expand the emergency department at St. Mark's Hospital, with work to begin in about two weeks.

The new emergency room will open in fall 2006, complete with 10 more beds, bringing the number to 32. All of them will be private, while some in the existing emergency department share rooms. Currently, the busy St. Mark's emergency department sees an average of 125 to 150 patients a day and served 45,000 patients last year.

That hospital was named a 100 Top Hospital and a 100 Top Cardiovascular Hospital by Solucient, and had received other honors. Healthgrades.com says St. Mark's outcomes place it in the top 15 percent in the nation, earning it a "Distinguished Hospital" designation.

MountainStar is the local brand used for its Utah hospitals by its owner, HCA. Other MountainStar hospitals include Ogden Regional Medical Center, Lakeview Hospital in Bountiful, Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem, Mountain View Hospital in Payson and Brigham City Community Hospital.

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E-mail: lois@desnews.com