SPANISH FORK, Utah—The Utah-based medical provider Intermountain Healthcare has announced that its latest hospital project, the $150 million Spanish Fork Hospital, will see its opening delayed from this fall until next spring.

On a recent news release posted on the website of Intermountain Healthcare, the medical outfit said that the covid-19 pandemic has adversely affected the healthcare industry in ways that were not foreseeable when the new hospital commenced construction late last year.  Furthermore, during the initial weeks of the pandemic, the numbers of patients in the Rocky Mountains region slowed as more people stayed home to avoid exposure–which, in a domino effect, caused construction and healthcare firms to reevaluate projects in design and construction.

Secondly, Intermountain Healthcare said that its new facilities will necessarily have to reconfigured to maximize proper doctor-patient separation as well as patient-patient separation.  In a statement on Intermountain’s website, Francis Gibson, administrator of the Spanish Fork Hospital, said that while even with such reconsiderations, the “original size and scope of the hospital remains the same, which will allow us to meet the needs of the fast-growing communities of southern Utah County.”

A report in the Daily Herald said that, as of December, construction was between 60 percent and 65 percent finished.  The Herald said that the majority of construction was due to be completed by October except for a maintenance building, whose buildout would likely continue on into 2021.

When the hospital facility opens next spring, it is estimated it will host upwards of 4,000 surgeries and the births of nearly 2,000 babies per year, according to the Herald, which further reported that the coronavirus pandemic will likely not affect those projections for 2021 and beyond.

The Herald found that the hospital will offer facilities for women’s health, encompassing five labor and delivery rooms as well as other rooms for C-section care, antepartum and postpartum rooms, as well as 12 emergency department rooms and suites for gastroenterology and respiratory therapy.  There will also be onsite facilities for radiology, CT and MRI scanning.

Other services to be offered at Spanish Fork Hospital will be specialized care in such subfields as orthopedics and sports medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, dermatology, psychology and counseling, neurology, urology and ENT and audiology.  Furthermore, the new hospital will have referring capabilities for larger facilities such as the nearby Utah Valley Hospital, which is located in Provo.

The Herald also reports that some of the healthcare providers at an on-site clinical facility at Spanish Fork will be part-time and others full-time.  That clinic will also provide specialty care in sports medicine and orthopedics.

HDR designed the new hospital, and Okland Construction of Tempe, Ariz., is serving as the general contractor.

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PROVO, Utah — Intermountain Healthcare’s Utah Valley Hospital recently opened the new Pedersen Patient Tower for patient care, marking substantial completion of an ongoing $430 million hospital replacement project that began in 2015.

The 600,000-square-foot, 12-story tower features all new spaces including 234 patient rooms, an emergency department and clinical evaluation unit, main entrance, registration, surgery and interventional services, Neuro-Shock-Trauma ICU and Cardiovascular ICU, a café, gift shop, chapel and Valley Bistro.

The building is also designed to allow for a fairly quick expansion of its ICU, if needed.

Another key design feature of the Pedersen Tower is the size of its new patient rooms, which are double in size of the former medical/surgical rooms.

These new rooms provide sufficient space for caregivers to provide treatment and for family or friends to visit patients in the hospital.

“Some of the enhancements will bring a lot more care to the patients—and we’re trying to minimize patient impact as much as possible,” said Adam Jensen, Facility Design Executive Director, Intermountain Healthcare. “All materials and staff interaction are handled on an offstage corridor; we also added decentralized nurse stations to increase not only the caregiver’s time with patient, but increase the amount of interaction between staff to minimize medication errors.”

Jensen also explained that the design integrates all of the treatment areas on the same floor, including the ORs and IRs, Cath Labs, Interventional Radiology and GI Labs. They even share the same prep and post-operation spaces.

The new patient tower also incorporates a state-of-the art tool known as the “Get Well” Network—which provides an education entertainment system that is easily accessed by patients and allows them to research medical information, receive post-operation information from their doctor, enjoy entertainment and even order lunch.

The facility also applies false risk technology, which is a way to minimize cost by way of monitoring a patient who’s at risk in a very dissecting manner, and notifies staff immediately when movement is detected.

Finally, the last stage of the replacement project will include the demolition of the existing East Tower to create a healing garden that includes an outdoor eating space for the new River Rock Café.

A new laboratory area will also be created, and a pedestrian bridge will be built to access medical clinics across the busy street on which the hospital is located.

By completing this project, Intermountain Healthcare’s Utah Valley Hospital will achieve the replacement of aging buildings with new seismically sound facilities, enable the hospital to apply evidence-based concepts to patient care, relocate complimentary services lines within the hospital to be more efficient, and to meet current healthcare needs of Utah County — one of the fastest-growing counties in the country, according to Intermountain Healthcare. 

All in all, Jensen explained that the success of building a patient tower adjacent to an existing structure is quite an accomplishment.

“In the trying time that we had, we were able to take such an enormous project and bring it within the allotted budget we had. Having something that’s been under design and construction for five years, and still have it track under budget is a significant feat,” said Jensen. “The most impressive factor, as we complete the building and transfer patients and staff, is the significant time table piece. It was a very quick over-the-weekend move that everything slid over from one building to the next. It’s been pretty seamless.”

The new Pedersen Patient Tower at Intermountain Healthcare’s Utah Valley Hospital opened for patient care on Jan. 27, 2019 with the anticipation of the healing garden and dining room expansion to be completed by March 2020.

HDR Inc. of Omaha, Neb., is the architecture firm while major subcontractors for the project include Sunroc of St. George, Utah; Taylor Electric Inc. of Salt Lake City; J & S Mechanical of Draper, Utah; SDI (Standard Drywall) of San Diego; Cache Valley Electric of Logan, Utah; and Pacific Cabinets of Salt Lake City.

The facility is also on track for LEED Silver certification, noting its minimal waste practices.

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MIDVALE, Utah – Pointing to the recent devastations of natural disasters including Hurricane Harvey and Irma, Intermountain Healthcare aims to strengthen Utah’s medical infrastructure in acquiring the supplies it needs to face a natural-disaster at its high-tech 327,000-square-foot fulfillment center in Midvale, while also using features that could earn it a LEED Gold certification. For any business, improving your overall supply chain strategy through cheaper costs, more efficient systems, and better fulfillment rates is important but can be life-saving too in the medical industry.

Construction on what is being called the ‘Kem C. Gardner Supply Chain Center’ prepares the facility for earthquakes and severe winter storms, the two most likely natural-disaster scenarios in Utah. The building has been designed to reach high performance in significant areas of human and environmental health, including sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

According to Gordon Slade, the supply chain logistics director, the Intermountain Supply Chain Center building was designed and built to a seismic importance factor of 7.5 on the Richter scale. It is equipped with plentiful medical equipment to get the needed materials to medical facilities within 48 to 96 hours without the assistance of disaster-response agencies.

The highly automated facility orders, purchases, stocks and distributes about 5,000 different types of medical supplies and medications with up to a 30-day supply on hand. More than 2.5 million medical items pass through the center each year, according to a statement.

“The large 327,000-square-foot building was built as if it were six different buildings all very close together [creating physical decoupling of foundations, floors and walls] to reduce the amount of damage that would otherwise occur in a moderate to strong earthquake,” said Slade. “The building is equipped with backup generators and fuel to run them for 72 hours or longer. There is also a Command Center room to coordinate with our hospitals, local, state and federal officials during a natural disaster event. The center is equipped with emergency communications radios, satellite phone and dedicated analog phone lines.”

Intermountain Healthcare strives to create a reduction in costs by purchasing supplies directly from the manufacturer, handling the delivery of products and streamlining processes. “Reduced supply costs come through the self-distribution model the building provides and includes a very high fill rate and accuracy rate to assure our caregivers have what they need to treat our patients,” said Slade.

There are innate efficiencies being achieved with these improvements such as large bulk purchase volumes, including standardization of supply, cost, quality, and outcome-based product selection and procurement. The overall improved availability of supplies will mitigate overnight shipment costs, improve supplier engagement and relationships, supply-chain efficiency and supply continuity (assuring needed supply at the greatest time of need, information, forecast and usage transparency.) Lastly, it will provide the ability for suppliers to see demand, warehouse automation and a reduction in labor costs as well as a dedicated transportation fleet, creating highly reliable and efficient deliveries.

“While the supply chain center does provide cost savings, its value is in the support of our clinicians and patients for improved quality and outcomes,” said Slade.

The building also has design features that incorporate LEED Gold certification aspects. While the building has not acquired such certification, it features several LEED design elements such as an LED lighting upgrade throughout the entire building, 55 kW solar panel array on the roof top, electric pool car with charging stations, direct access to public transportation and the light rail located at the corner of the campus, being built on land reclaimed from an EPA superfund cleanup site, an interior designed for daylight harvesting, xeriscape landscaping and recycled materials during construction.

The mainly automated center employs approximately more than 50 workers, according to a statement. Peggy Lee, a communications executive for Intermountain HealthCare’s supply chain operations, explained that the organization also equips distribution employees with the proficiency to maintain all of the center’s services, even if the robotics break down in the event of a disaster.

“We have this beautiful automation, and people [balance] to ensure we would be fully operational [in the event of a natural disaster],” Lee said.

The close proximity of the supply center to both Intermountain Healthcare facilities and traffic arteries will ultimately bolster medical workers in the event of an emergency, and will set a model for other centers to develop highly prepared storage and relief centers for their communities.

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