While the nation debates the virtue of health-care reform, a local provider is investing in improving its ability to serve the growing number of people seeking its services.

Last Friday, Mountain West Medical Center broke ground on a $15 million, multi-phase expansion project that will increase the facility's labor and delivery capacity as well as its surgical capability, Doug Sagers, director of physician relations for Mountain West Medical Center, told the Deseret News.

Located in Tooele, the hospital currently has 38 beds, 42 active physicians and more than 400 employees.

Sagers said that due to increased demand, the facility has been working at 28 percent over capacity for its women's services, prompting the need for expansion.

"We're building an additional 16,000-square-foot women's center," he told the Deseret News. Upon completion of the women's center about nine months from now, the previously occupied space will be converted to surgical services space, he said.

Sagers said the sluggish economy and increasingly expensive health-care costs have resulted in a "slight decline in elective surgeries, but … other areas of our volumes grow."

"People are being more judicious in how they spend their (health-care) funds," he said.

When asked about the current legislation under consideration in Washington, D.C., addressing health-care issues, Sagers said, "We clearly support some sort of health-care reform.

"We just want to make sure that it's appropriate and we're not endangering seniors and people who have paid into the system for years … and now may have their benefits reduced," he said.

He added that among the issues that need to be addressed would be tort reform, which refers to proposed changes in the civil justice system that would reduce litigation or damages focusing on personal injury.

Sagers said the amount of money spent on frivolous lawsuits today is far too high.

"It consumes an inordinate amount of time and resources from health care," he said. "By the same token, for someone who is truly injured through a negligent act, there needs to be consequences."

e-mail: jlee@desnews.com