PARK CITY — Since Miners Hospital transformed into an office building and left Summit County without round-the-clock medical service about 70 years ago, Park City-area residents have had several choices when they are about to deliver a baby or when they inconveniently become ill or injured during non-business hours.
Taking two aspirin and calling their doctor in the morning or wending their way down Parleys Canyon to a Salt Lake City hospital 30 miles away are options. Complications can arise from both, say, if the roads are icy, a femur's fractured or the water just broke.
If a group of Summit County residents gets its way, the option of hurrying over to receive care a few minutes away at a state-of-the-art hospital in Park City — at 2 p.m. or 2 a.m., for an ugly lawn-mower incident, a mountain bike accident or to see what the stork has to offer — could be available in a few years.
It's about time this option became available, if you ask the Summit Community Hospital Development Foundation, a nonprofit organization that's been trying to make that happen since 1999.
"Our hope is to break ground (for a new hospital) in 2004. . . . Everything is moving along," said Linda Selig Blonsley, the foundation's volunteer president. "My personal motivation is . . . to have a hospital here in Summit County so that we can enjoy the same level of health care as other communities."
A $100,000 feasibility study, funded by an anonymous donor, was recently completed by the health-care consulting firm Health Evolutions Inc. The study reviewed the hospital foundation's mission statement, conducted a market assessment, prepared a financial analysis and conducted interviews with local physicians and community members.
The result: It deems a Summit County hospital would realistically be successful if certain requirements can be met — primarily, link up with a health-care system partner that can provide access to broad-based health-insurance plans and find donors to pick up the estimated $30 million construction bill.
The foundation is now searching for potential partners, rumored to include Intermountain Health Care, St. Mark's Hospital and the University of Utah, among others. Blonsley declined to name names for fear of damaging negotiations, but she is confident a partner will be found within the next 60 days. As for the study, available on www.hospital4us.org, she called it "very positive."
"This development satisfies an unmet community need," she said. "It gives an opportunity for people to heal in their own community, close to family and friends."
The hospital, projected to be 80,000 square feet and operational in 2005, would have 25 patient beds, a 24-hour emergency room, up to four surgical suites for general surgery, a high-tech imaging center for MRIs, CT scans and X-rays, and a women's services center with at least four birthing suites. Physician offices and related retail would also be included in a medical park in the vicinity.
Blonsley's goal is to have a high-tech, patient-based facility.
"It's not going to be a cookie-cutter hospital," she said. "For a small hospital, it will have an unusually high level of technology. It will provide the finest health care available."
The hospital and parking lot would sit on a 10-acre parcel with another 10-15 acres available for future development on the northwest quadrant at Quinn's Junction, the intersection of Highway 40 and State Road 248 on the east side or "back door" of Park City. Kimball Junction was once the preferred spot, but Quinn's Junction has been voted the desired locale by a consensus of the development foundation's board of directors.
However, the foundation won't know until a six-month-or-so land-use-concept study is completed by Park City and Summit County planners whether that chunk of land will even be available for development.
"It's an important entry into Park City," said Rick Lewis, director of Park City's Community Development Department. "We want to do something that is attractive."
Lewis said the city and county are looking at allowing some commercial projects to be developed there but that "it will not be a major commercial node." The hospital, a golf course and a resort are some of the current concepts for the site. One quadrant is already occupied by a business.
Wain Allen, a doctor and foundation board member with clinics in Kamas and Coalville, thinks this spot is perfect.
"Access to a hospital via Highway 40 would be an ideal location for my patients needing hospital care," he said. "The east side of the county is in dire need of a conveniently located hospital."
According to the Utah Hospital Association, there are 47 community hospitals in the Beehive State spread throughout Utah's 29 counties. Only six other counties in the state do not have a hospital — Daggett, Emery, Morgan, Rich, Wayne and Piute. Thirteen counties with populations smaller than Summit (29,736 residents as of 2000 U.S. census report) have a hospital.
Blonsley couldn't believe the Park City area, which has four medical clinics, was hospital-less when she relocated here seven years ago.
"That has shocked a lot of people. We just assumed there was a hospital," she said. "Some people make a decision not to buy a home because there is not a hospital."
While there are those who believe the hospital is a "wish-list" item, a recent survey of 200 Summit County residents revealed that 90 percent support the idea. More than 80 percent claimed they would use the hospital.
In 2000, Utah Hospital discharge data shows that full-time Summit County residents had 1,661 inpatient discharges. Of those, more than 1,300 were in Salt Lake Valley hospitals, with the bulk being treated at the University of Utah Health Care Center, (411); LDS Hospital (308); St. Mark's (267); and Primary Children's Medical Center (154). Only 95 discharges were reported at the Heber Valley hospital.
One concern by local physicians and politicians is whether the hospital would be financially feasible. The recent closure of Rocky Mountain Hospital in Salt Lake City has some raising their eyebrows as to whether the economic climate is right. The hospital would not receive financial help from the city or the county, so capital would have to be acquired from donors.
There are also concerns about whether Park City residents would drive 10 minutes to their own hospital or whether they would just drive the extra 15 minutes or so to a Salt Lake facility with better capabilities. Some believe a hospital isn't necessarily a priority but that a nearby 24-hour urgent care facility is definitely needed. Being able to deal with complications that arise in childbirth delivery and with newborns is another concern.
Dr. Robert Winn, a physician who's practiced in Park City for 23 years, is part of the medical profession in Park City who would support having a hospital under certain conditions.
"What I am in favor of is having some type of facility that will help expand services to our community, most notably some type of 24-hour coverage for all the urgent types of things that happen at inconvenient times . . . and a place to deliver babies," Winn said.
"As far as a hospital goes, if it is a facility that is high quality, financially viable and can expand services to my patients, it would be wonderful."
E-MAIL: jody@desnews.com