SALT LAKE CITY, UT—MountainStar Healthcare announced additions to its care network, with several initiatives aimed at bringing high-quality, cost-effective care options to families in fast-growing Utah communities.

MountainStar Healthcare is bringing additional access points to its comprehensive network which serves Utahns in approximately one million annual patient interactions. While best known for its eight hospitals serving communities from Logan to Payson, the health system has increasingly focused on adding to its more than 60 sites of care with low-cost and ambulatory care options, its leaders say.

“Healthcare needs in our state are evolving rapidly as our communities grow and change,” said Greg Angle, president of MountainStar Healthcare. “We’re working to give more Utahns access to our award-winning network and respond to changes in the way people seek and receive care.”

As part of HCA Healthcare, MountainStar says it is able to bring the data, insights and best practices from one of the nation’s leading healthcare providers to improve outcomes for Utahns. MountainStar Healthcare was named a Top 15 Health System in 2021 by IBM Watson Health (now Merative), and its hospitals have been recognized for quality, safety and patient experience by organizations like Merative, Healthgrades and The Leapfrog Group.

“We’re proud of the high-quality care we bring to our communities,” Angle added. “We have several initiatives underway to offer Utahns more options for affordable, comprehensive healthcare services.”

Those initiatives include new locations to bring care closer to home in fast-growing Utah communities:

• A new emergency room will open in Syracuse in late 2023, a department of Ogden Regional Medical Center. This hospital-level ER will bring the total number of MountainStar Healthcare emergency departments in the state to 14 (eight hospitals, six off-campus emergency centers).
• Two additional CareNow® urgent care centers will open in the coming months in West Point and American Fork. That will bring the total number of Utah CareNow® locations to nine, all added to the MountainStar network in the last 24 months.
• MountainStar Healthcare has also partnered with Envision Radiology to bring high-quality, affordable diagnostic capabilities to convenient, community-based imaging centers. Two Envision Imaging locations have opened this year in Draper and Bountiful.

MountainStar is also continuing to expand and improve hospital-level services offered in acute-care settings:

• Major operating room expansions/renovations at hospitals supporting outlying communities: Brigham City Community Hospital (Box Elder County) and Mountain View Hospital (in the Utah County city of Payson).
• The previously-announced expansions at two Salt Lake County hospitals are also continuing towards completion: St. Mark’s Hospital and Lone Peak Hospital.

In addition to these announcements for new sites of care, two new HCA Healthcare Centers for Clinical Advancement are coming to Utah. The centers, in Ogden and Draper, will feature cutting-edge technology to train nurses and other clinicians, elevating the care delivered to Utahns.

“With Utah’s continued growth, we are making smart choices about how we can better serve the people of the Beehive State by enhancing our care network,” Angle said. “We’re adding access points, improving continuity of care, and bringing the knowledge and best practices from HCA Healthcare’s 35 million annual patient interactions to the communities we live in and love.”

Details on each of those initiatives can be found below.

Emergency care close to home. The new Syracuse Emergency Center, an off-campus department of Ogden Regional Medical Center, will provide 24/7 emergency care, offering quicker access to hospital-level emergency services. The 14,000-square-foot facility will be staffed by board-certified physicians from the medical staff at Ogden Regional Medical Center, as well as clinical staff trained in emergency services.

“So often with emergency care, every second matters in terms of getting the patients in the right hands,” said Dr. Filip Roos, chief medical officer for MountainStar Healthcare. “Having these freestanding emergency centers in communities throughout Northern Utah enables us to better serve families that otherwise would have to travel farther for that type of care.”

Dr. Roos added: “When you’re hurting or sick, having emergency care five minutes away from your front door instead of 20 minutes away makes a big difference.”

In addition to the newly announced Syracuse Emergency Center, two other off-campus emergency rooms opened in October in growing Utah communities: Lone Peak Hospital’s Herriman Emergency Center and Timpanogos Regional Hospital’s Westlake Emergency Center in Lehi/Saratoga Springs. The three new centers join St. Mark’s Hospital’s Taylorsville Emergency Center and West Valley Emergency as well as Ogden Regional Medical Center’s Pleasant View Emergency Center.

The Syracuse Emergency Center will open in late 2023, at which point MountainStar will have 14 emergency departments in the state, including the six off-campus emergency departments.

Expanded urgent care network. MountainStar Healthcare continues to add to the network of CareNow® urgent care clinics it acquired in 2021. The West Point location will open in December and another will open in American Fork in early 2023, bringing the total number of CareNow clinics in Utah to nine.

“Whether it’s a sprained ankle, a pesky sinus infection or a quick test, sometimes we all need care that’s convenient, close to home and more affordable,” said Jen Wagenaar, MountainStar’s chief nursing executive. “The CareNow network helps us treat patients with minor injuries, illnesses and non-life-threatening medical conditions.”

There are currently CareNow clinics in Bountiful, Cottonwood Heights, Murray, Orem, South Jordan, West Jordan and Salt Lake City.

State-of-the-art surgical upgrades. Brigham City Community Hospital recently completed a major operating room (O.R.) expansion and upgrade, bringing advanced surgical care to rural communities in and around Box Elder County. Payson’s Mountain View Hospital just began work on its own O.R. renovation and upgrade. It is a $25 million project that will modernize and expand surgical capabilities at the 124-bed facility.

“By making these upgrades, we’re able to combine the best of both worlds: the devotion of community hospitals with deep ties to the families they serve, coupled with the latest in surgical technology that can accelerate recovery and improve patient outcomes,” said Roos. “By upgrading our capabilities at the north and south ends of the Wasatch Front, we’re ensuring that more Utahns are close to the cutting-edge technology and high-quality care we’re known for.”

Advancing the nursing profession in Utah. MountainStar Healthcare is opening two Centers for Clinical Advancement, where nurses and clinicians can hone their craft with state-of-the-art technology to help them learn and apply new skills.

“These centers couldn’t come at a better time, as there is such a need to prepare and up-train more clinicians in the face of a national nursing shortage,” Wagenaar said. “We’ve been working with leaders here in Utah to bring more passionate people into a career path as caregivers. This is our way of showing up to help nurture the pipeline of future nurses and technicians in the Mountain West.”

Wagenaar added: “In addition to collaborative learning technology, these centers will feature high-fidelity, lifelike simulation equipment. Nurses and techs can practice their skills with mannequins that blink, sweat, bleed, cough and more. It’s incredibly realistic, and provides our colleagues with a very authentic learning experience to prepare them for real-life care settings.”

The centers, located in Ogden and Draper, will offer continuing education for existing colleagues as well as orientation and training for newly hired nurses and technicians. HCA Healthcare’s Center for Clinical Advancement now has 14 locations across the enterprise, including these two Utah centers.

Other previously announced growth initiatives. Work is progressing on a new patient tower at St. Mark’s Hospital, the largest of MountainStar Healthcare’s eight Utah hospitals. The new five-story tower will add 125,000 square feet of space to the hospital, and the project also includes a renovation of 42,000 square feet of existing space. Scheduled for completion in 2023, the project will feature larger patient rooms, more comfortable waiting areas, additional clinic space and more.

Lone Peak Hospital’s multi-year expansion effort is also nearing completion. The Draper hospital will nearly double its bed count with a new addition that includes more than 60,000 square feet of new or renovated space. As part of the expansion, Lone Peak will now feature a 12-bed Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU), an expanded O.R., new laboratory and pharmacy facilities, as well as improved kitchen and dining areas, among other improvements.

The two Envision Imaging locations in Draper and Bountiful are already serving patients. These community-based imaging centers provide patients with a convenient, lower-cost option for life-saving diagnostic services.

MountainStar Healthcare has also expanded its ambulatory surgery footprint with centers that offer affordable, high-quality surgical care and minimally invasive technology. With 10 surgery centers in Utah, the network is a Utah leader in non-acute surgical services and advanced surgical robotics.

More to come. Representatives for MountainStar Healthcare say Utahns can expect to see more announcements in the future as the network keeps pace with one of the nation’s fastest-growing states.

“We’ve been caring for people and improving lives in Utah for a long time, and we’re committed to evolving with the communities here,” said Angle. “We will continue to explore ways to provide Utahns with an integrated care network to meet their needs with high-quality care at an affordable cost.”

About MountainStar Healthcare

MountainStar Healthcare is a comprehensive care network serving Utahns in award-winning hospitals from Logan to Payson, as well as dozens of ambulatory sites of care. As part of HCA Healthcare, one of the nation’s leading providers of health services, MountainStar is able to bring the data, insights and best practices from the enterprise’s 35 million annual patient interacts to improve care for families in Utah. The eight MountainStar Healthcare hospitals include: St. Mark’s Hospital, Ogden Regional Medical Center, Timpanogos Regional Hospital, Lakeview Hospital, Mountain View Hospital, Lone Peak Hospital, Brigham City Community Hospital and Cache Valley Hospital. Please click here to connect with MountainStar Healthcare on social media.

About HCA Healthcare

Nashville-based HCA Healthcare is one of the nation’s leading providers of healthcare services comprising 182 hospitals and approximately 2,200 ambulatory sites of care, including surgery centers, freestanding ERs, urgent care centers, and physician clinics, in 20 states and the United Kingdom. With its founding in 1968, HCA Healthcare created a new model for hospital care in the United States, using combined resources to strengthen hospitals, deliver patient-focused care and improve the practice of medicine. HCA Healthcare has conducted a number of clinical studies, including one that demonstrated that full-term delivery is healthier than early elective delivery of babies and another that identified a clinical protocol that can reduce bloodstream infections in ICU patients by 44 percent. HCA Healthcare is a learning health system that uses its more than 35 million annual patient encounters to advance science, improve patient care and save lives. Please click here to connect with HCA Healthcare on social media.