Medical Center Operational — Patients moved to new Intermountain Healthcare facility

MURRAY — Intermountain Healthcare's massive patient move into its new Intermountain Medical Center in Murray started early in the day Monday but was complete by 5 p.m., with a total of 158 patients moved from other hospitals.

In addition, the new hospital saw business of its own with several babies delivered, surgical units in operation and the relocation of LifeFlight's air ambulance operations.

Cottonwood Hospital is closed, and LDS Hospital no longer houses critical care or transplant centers — those are all part of the new medical campus in Murray, hospital spokesman Jess Gomez said.

The first emergency-room patient arrived by ambulance at 6:18 a.m. Monday, ahead of a fleet of 14 ambulances that would spend the day ferrying 91 critical-care patients from LDS Hospital and the remaining patients at Cottonwood Hospital. A LifeFlight helicopter transferred all 30 of the babies in LDS Hospital's newborn intensive care unit.

The first babies flown to the new medical campus were triplets Natalia, Conner and Janessa Nagel. Their father, Paul Nagel, was on hand with a camera, watching the helicopter's predawn arrival. "It was pretty exciting," he said. "I got here just before 6 o'clock and took a picture of them coming in on LifeFlight."

Several sets of twins also made the helicopter trip together; other babies from LDS' intensive care nursery arrived at the new hospital one at a time, a process that continued steadily until 2 p.m.

Cottonwood Hospital staff delivered that hospital's last baby Monday morning and then began shutting down the hospital's women's center. Mother and baby were then transferred to the new medical center.

David Grauer, administrator of the new medical center, greeted patients at the door as the flights and ambulances began arriving just after 6 a.m. and didn't stray far from the hospital's emergency entrance for the next four hours. He and others on the staff of the new complex were quite emotional as the massive hospital complex came to life with the arrival of its first patients.

Grauer said that emotion was expected. "This has been a very powerful morning so far."

Cardiac patient Glenna Quigley Baker was one of the first patients transferred from LDS Hospital. She said the staff at LDS awoke her a little before 6 a.m. An ambulance ride later, nurses were tending to her in a private patient room at the new medical center. "I'd heard how beautiful the facility is, and now I know," she said.