Rapid growth motivates administrators to begin Riverton Hospital expansion

Rapid growth motivates administrators to begin Riverton Hospital expansion

(Intermountain Healthcare)


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RIVERTON — The community hospital that serves a growing community is now growing, too — faster than anticipated.

Officials from Intermountain Healthcare's Riverton Hospital on Thursday led a group of local schoolchildren in turning the first shovels full of dirt for what will become an approximately 120,000-square-foot addition to the hospital.

"Throughout the last few years, the cities in our service area have been ranked among the fastest growing cities in the nation," said Blair Kent, a Riverton Hospital administrator. "In order to meet the current and future needs of the residents in our community, we're growing and expanding to better meet their health care needs."

Similar to the recent addition at Primary Children's Hospital, the new space will largely serve outpatient needs, beefing up clinic space, which allows for more patients to be seen. It will also include various new services, including pediatric physical therapy and rehabilitation, operated by Primary Children's clinicians who are already a part of the Riverton campus.

The new construction will also allow existing hospital functions to expand "where we're finding a few pinch points," said Royce Stephens, another hospital administrator. He said expansion was in the future planning for the hospital, but "we didn't think it would be this quick."

Space requirements and limitations in the current building, which is about 350,000 square feet, have pushed plans for any anticipated expansion up about five years. Originally, Stephens said, the hospital had planned to become larger about seven years to a decade after it opened in November 2009.

The new building will house additional services such as rheumatology, pulmonology, a senior clinic, ophthalmology and podiatry. The inpatient laboratory, endoscopy and physical therapy will expand from its existing quarters to the new addition to meet the growing demand for such services.

Stephens said the current facility is not consistently at capacity but faces longer waiting periods during certain parts of the year.

Intermountain Riverton Hospital outpatient expansion rendering (Photo: Intermountain Healthcare)
Intermountain Riverton Hospital outpatient expansion rendering (Photo: Intermountain Healthcare)

Patients have requested an education center, which is included in the new design, to allow clinicians to teach various classes on health care and other issues on-site.

The Riverton Hospital expansion project, Stephens said, reflects a trend in health care that is sending more people to outpatient care and fewer hospital stays. Many procedures that once required lengthy and overnight visits are now conducted in a matter of hours, with rehabilitation encouraged very soon after and recuperation done more conveniently at home.

"It's a change in the mindset in health care, the practices and in technology," he said.

Since its opening, Riverton Hospital has witnessed 10 to 15 percent increases in the number of patients measured or monitored each year. It is keeping pace with population growth in the area it serves, including Riverton, Bluffdale, Herriman, South Jordan and portions of northern Utah County (Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain).

The hospital, located at 3741 W. 12600 South, averages around 200 newborn deliveries each month, about 26,000 emergency department visits annually and operates on about 5,200 cases each year.

"We are a community hospital, here to serve the families in these communities," Stephens said.

In addition to meeting a growing need, Kent said the new construction will accommodate future additional growth.

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