AVMC Announces Expansion and New Name

A multi-million dollar expansion project and a new name for Ashley Valley Medical Center were announced at a special event held on August 9, 2007 at the hospital. The new name – Ashley Regional Medical Center – more accurately reflects the facility’s increased breadth of services and mission of serving the entire region, according to Si Hutt, Chief Executive Officer for the hospital.

The new project, which will begin this fall, will invest $7.2 million in the facility, and brings to over $15 million the total investment in the hospital’s facility since 2003. The new project includes:

• A new 2-story medical office building which can house up to 14 physicians
• A new main entrance for the hospital
• A new registration area and information desk
• A new one-stop, pre-surgical area where patients can register and have outpatient diagnostic tests performed
• Space to house a future fixed MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanner
• A new gift shop for the Volunteer Auxiliary

It will also include new office space and a renovation of the kitchen. Earlier renovations, which began in 2003, invested $8.5 million in building a new 9-bed emergency room; new 4-bed Intensive Care Unit; a new pre- and post-surgical area; a third and larger OR suite; a new, large and well equipped radiology department with digital imaging storage and transmission; and a new and expanded OB department. This expansion was completed in 2005 and was the first part of a master facility plan that has multiple phases.

The hospital cares for patients from the Tri-County area of Uintah, Duschesne, and Daggett counties as well as patients from the western slope of Colorado and even a few from southern Wyoming. This significant facility investment of over $15,000,000 in four years demonstrates the long term commitment to providing high quality and personalized healthcare to the Uintah Basin.

This next phase of the expansion will greatly enlarge and improve physician office space. The majority of the construction will be a new two-story Medical Office Building which will house new physicians as well as better accommodate the 20% growth in the existing medical staff that has been experienced over the past seven years. Specialties that will be housed in the new office building include women’s services, orthopedic surgery, general surgery, and Ear Nose & Throat surgery. Further, this new office building will allow additional physicians and physician specialties to meet the healthcare needs of the surrounding region as it continues to grow and expand.

Construction will begin as soon as possible and hopefully as early as October. The new building will be approximately 22,000 square feet, and an additional 3,000 square foot of renovation will occur within the existing hospital.