MURRAY — The George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Outpatient Care Center at Intermountain Medical Center was dedicated Wednesday and the donors behind the facility were honored with a special luncheon and tour.
It bears the Eccles' name, as does the foundation that contributed $3 million to the campaign to build and equip the center, which is adjacent to the main hospital. The six-floor, 200,000-square-foot facility has lots of bells and whistles, from two CT scanners, two MRIs, a combined PET-CT scanner, fluoroscopy, ultrasound and eight operating rooms, said Dr. Gary Hunter, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon. Physicians who practice in the clinics also have their offices on the top three floors, rather than centralizing all of the campus' physician offices in a single building somewhere. The integration is both handy and somewhat unusual.
Hunter was on the team of health-care professionals that worked alongside architects and others involved in planning the center. And he said creating a high-tech care setting with a neighborhood-type clinic feel was a major goal.
"It was a fun project," he said, adding there were some battles to work out all the issues. But the result, he added, is a nice mix of "efficient and patient-friendly."
He said planners toured the country, took the best of what they found and incorporated it into the center.
Families were also part of the planning, according to registered nurses Donna Burton and Jody Sybrowsky. Besides more private consultation areas than they have had at LDS Hospital, they've added touches like a slushy machine for kids who have tonsillectomies and refreshments for families who are waiting while someone is in surgery.
The clinic is equipped for various specialties, including outpatient eye procedures, internal medicine and organ transplant follow-up. It also has a laboratory and pharmacy — both connected to the rest of the campus with pneumatic tubes like those used at the bank drive-through so medications, lab work or other items can be sent from place to place quickly — and eight operating rooms.
The entire campus has been designed to be eco-friendly, with lots of recycling and energy-saving touches. For instance, the special socks used to prevent blood clots in the legs after surgery will be collected, resterilized and put back to use, rather than thrown away after a single use. The glass in the building — and even the operating rooms have windows, some with views of the mountains — is highly reflective to keep energy costs down, according to David Grauer, who is now the CEO at Cottonwood Hospital and will take that role at Intermountain when it opens.
Besides noting the outpatient center's features, speakers also paid tribute to Spencer F. Eccles, chairman of the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation, and his family, thanking them for making the facility possible.
There's more hospital construction to come for Intermountain Healthcare, according to Kem Gardner, chairman of the board of trustees, who said several hospitals and other projects totalling about $2 billion are in the planning stages.
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