ST. GEORGE — Take a drive past the River Road campus at Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George and it is easy to see the site preparations happening for the hospital’s expansion. The medical center is well on its way to starting construction for the largest building project ever in Washington County.
Dixie Regional will celebrate the official start of construction with an “Up! Ceremony” June 17 at 7:30 a.m. in the parking lot of the Russell C. Taylor Health Sciences building at 1526 Medical Center Drive.
A light breakfast will be served, four beautiful hot air balloons will mark where the buildings will be located, and a brief program with patient stories and music will be held. The public is invited to attend. There is no charge.
What will be located in the 500,000 square feet added at the River Road campus?
“The purpose of this project is to expand for growth and consolidate all of the services that are at the 400 East campus at the River Road campus,” Dixie Regional Medical Center project manager Richard Dunn said. “There will be some growth in the intensive care unit, rehabilitation, mother and baby, newborn intensive care unit, and behavioral health. We are also adding an entire new neuro rehabilitation unit.”
Vice President of Intermountain Healthcare’s Southwest Region and CEO of Dixie Regional Terri Kane said this expansion supports all that Dixie Regional and Intermountain have imagined for the River Road campus.
“The project will enable Dixie Regional to become even more patient-focused, will optimize coordination across the continuum of care, and will improve patient safety,” Kane said. “With patients, providers, and procedures all in one place, we will be able to eliminate transfers between campuses, increasing efficiency.”
Architectural plans show what will be on each floor of each tower. The tower to be added on the northwest will house imaging and affiliate clinics on the first level along with a new bistro. Labor and delivery and the NICU will be on the second level. Mother and baby will have the whole third level, and behavioral health on the fourth level.
In the southeast tower, the lower level will house the new wound care center. Acute rehabilitation will be located on the first level. The ICU will be moved from its current location in the hospital to the second level. The third level will be shelled off for future needs and the pediactric and neuro units will be on the fourth level.
The addition on the northeast will have three levels with the lower level housing the new clinical lab. Level one will have new observation beds, specialty recovery, and emergency department overflow. On the second level a new area of surgical services will be added.
Actual tower construction has not started yet because the foundation pillars need to be poured before anything can go up. In a few months when all of the pillars are set, the upward construction will begin.
“All of the towers will start construction at the same time but will all be finished at different times because of the size and scope of what is going into the different buildings,” Dunn said. “The northeast addition will be the first to finish because it is the smallest. Then the southeast building will finish up, followed by the northwest tower, which has the largest footprint.”
Also planned is a stand-alone comprehensive cancer center which includes the renowned Intermountain Precision Genomics. Total project cost exceeds $300 million.
As for parking, by the end of construction, the number of stalls will more than double that available prior to construction.
Completion of the entire project is expected late in 2018.
“We are pleased to begin this project the same year as Intermountain Healthcare’s 40th anniversary of serving Washington County,” Kane said. “It’s another exciting fulfillment of the promise we made to the county in 1976. We take very seriously our commitment to provide the highest quality care at the lowest appropriate cost.”
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