Intermountain Press Release

Murray, UT —Hundreds of thousands of Utahns each year who receive their outpatient medical care through Intermountain Healthcare are going to have a "better, faster, more comprehensive, and more streamlined" patient-friendly experience in the future, thanks to the generosity of the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation.

The Foundation announced on Tuesday its pledge of $3 million to help build and equip the outpatient care hospital, which is part of Intermountain Healthcare's new Intermountain Medical Center, a comprehensive medical complex being built in Murray that will feature five specialty centers.

The new George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Outpatient Care Pavilion will be a six-story, 200,000 square-foot-facility, the largest of its kind in the Intermountain West. Anchoring the southwest corner of the new Intermountain Medical Center, the facility is scheduled for completion in 2007. Among its features will be an outpatient clinic, laboratory, pharmacy, and surgery center with six operating rooms, all with state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging capabilities and a major endoscopy center.

According to Kem Gardner, chair of the Intermountain Medical Center campaign, patients are going to have "the best of the best" in this new facility. "This generous gift will enable us to build an outpatient care center that will better help us meet the needs of our growing population throughout the Intermountain West for generations to come," he said.

Bill Nelson, president of Intermountain Healthcare, applauded the Foundation for its "extraordinary generosity." He extended appreciation on behalf of Intermountain and its patients "for the Foundation's foresight in recognizing the need for a facility like this to help us be prepared to meet the community's growing need for outpatient services now and in the future."

"Realizing the importance of this hospital to the health and well-being of citizens of the entire Intermountain Region, we are very proud to join with others in being a part of its development," said Spencer F. Eccles, president of the Eccles Foundation. "We are confident our founders, George and Dolores Eccles, would be gratified to be associated with this technologically-advanced facility that will improve the quality of life for the people of Utah for decades to come."

The need for Intermountain to have a comprehensive outpatient center is vital to serve its growing number of patients in the Intermountain West who utilize outpatient services such as imaging, diagnostic care and outpatient surgery, according to Gary Pehrson, regional vice president for Intermountain.

"That need will continue to grow significantly in the coming years. That's why it's essential that patients have a dedicated center, such as the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Outpatient Care Pavilion. This will provide patients their entire continuum of outpatient care in a healing and comfortable environment," says Pehrson.

Currently, about 720,000 patients receive outpatient care annually at Intermountain hospitals in the Salt Lake Valley. That's expected to grow to more than 900,000 patients when the new George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Outpatient Care Pavilion opens in 2007.

The new facility will feature a large multi-dimensional clinic equipped to cover a variety of specialties from internal medicine to organ transplant patients. Because the facility will focus only on patients receiving outpatient care, and be designed to serve those patients exclusively, delivery of care will be more efficient and streamlined.

"Patients who come to the center for a diagnostic procedure such as an MRI, or have outpatient surgery, or come to the clinic for a doctor's visit, will receive all the care they need in one location and in a facility expressly designed for them," said Pehrson.

The Outpatient Surgery department will feature six operating suites capable of handling a broader range of cases. Patient privacy will be assured through newly designed registration areas.

In addition, the Outpatient Imaging Services will offer a full-range of state-of-the-art capabilities including: two MRIs that will feature new advanced software used for breast imaging, and expanded cardiac imaging applications; two cutting-edge CT scanners, one providing a 64-slice image (one of the most advanced in the country; the current standard is a 16-slice image); and a combined PET-CT scanner, a brand new type of technology used for advanced cancer diagnosis and to establish cancer staging. The center will also feature additional imaging services, including suites designed exclusively for outpatient biopsies and spinal procedures; ultrasound; nuclear medicine; x-ray imaging; and fluoroscopy procedures.

The $362.5 million Intermountain Medical Center, currently being constructed on a 100-acre site at 5300 South and State Street, will open in 2007. The 1.2 million square-foot medical center will include four facilities in addition to the new George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Outpatient Care Pavilion:

• A15-story inpatient, critical care-Level I trauma hospital.
• A seven-story heart and lung hospital that will house advanced treatment for cardiac and respiratory patients.
• A five-story women's and newborn hospital.
• A three-story cancer treatment hospital.
• Medical education and research facilities and clinics will also be built on the campus, as will physician office space.