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A child is given back his stuffed elephant whose "blood was drawn" as part of an exam during a tour of the new Intermountain Health emergency room and surgical facility in Saratoga Springs on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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Intermountain Health's new emergency department in Saratoga Springs, located at 392 W. Medical Drive, will open next week. On Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, a ribbon-cutting and community event was held to celebrate its opening.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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Intermountain Health's new emergency department in Saratoga Springs, located at 392 W. Medical Drive, will open next week. On Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, a ribbon-cutting and community event was held to celebrate its opening.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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A CT scanner is visible during a tour of Intermountain Health's new ER and surgical facility in Saratoga Springs on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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A stuffed animal is shown getting a scan as part of a tour of Intermountain Health's new emergency department in Saratoga Springs on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2023. The ER and surgical facility are located at 392 W. Medical Drive and will open next week.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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A ribbon is cut to signify the opening of Intermountain Health's new emergency department and surgical center in Saratoga Springs, located at 392 W. Medical Drive, on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. The facilities will open next week.

Courtesy Intermountain Health

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A child checks the vitals on his stuffed animal given to him at the community event on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, to celebrate the new Intermountain Health emergency room and surgical facility in Saratoga Springs.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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Stuffed animals are handed out to children at the community event on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, to celebrate the new Intermountain Health emergency room and surgical facility in Saratoga Springs.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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Saratoga Springs is officially home to an Intermountain Health emergency department and surgical center, both standalone facilities on the Saratoga Springs medical campus of Intermountain American Fork Hospital. The campus is located at 392 W. Medical Drive behind Fat Cats and Smith’s Marketplace.

The ER will officially open in the middle of next week and the surgical center will begin seeing its first patients the week of Dec. 4.

A ribbon-cutting was held Tuesday afternoon, and in the evening a community celebration was held, which over 1,800 children, adults and seniors attended. Intermountain Health provided food and tours for guests, plus balloon animals, face painting and pony rides for children, a bungee trampoline and booths with games, prizes and treats. The Westlake Jazz Band also performed at the event.

All of the children who toured the facilities received a small stuffed animal which they could take through the ER and surgical center for an “exam.” The stuffed animals could have their vitals checked, their arm bandaged, their blood drawn, had imaging work done in the scanning rooms, were given a surgical cap in the surgical center and more to ensure the animals were healthy to go home. Morgan Mitchell, marketing and communications manager for Intermountain’s Saratoga Springs campus as well as American Fork and Orem Community hospitals, said the activity was offered to children to ease their fears of going to the doctor. By having children familiarize themselves with the emergency department through the stuffed animals, Mitchell said it will “hopefully help them see that it’s not a scary process.”

Intermountain Health bought the 40 acres of land the two facilities are located on, but they do not take up all of the land. The extra land provides opportunities for expansion. The growth of additional medical centers and offices on the Saratoga Springs medical campus reportedly will continue alongside the growth of Saratoga Springs and surrounding communities. Jason Wilson, administrator for Intermountain American Fork Hospital, explained that the expansion of medical services will be based on the population increase and the availability of medical professionals.

Intermountain Health is currently in the phase of developing the front 12 acres, and the 28 acres behind them “are available for future growth, and our intent is to grow with the community,” Wilson said.

In the near future, the plan is to build a medical office building for a variety of different specialists in between the emergency department and surgical center.

Mitchell emphasized that the emergency department is not another InstaCare. Intermountain Health’s Saratoga Springs InstaCare will remain open. The ER in Saratoga Springs is a full 24-hour working operation that can support high-trauma patients and do emergency transfers to other hospitals, if necessary. Imaging such as MRI scans are also available at the ER.

According to Wilson, 85% of the patients that come to the Saratoga Springs ER will be able to be sent home from there with the care they need. “There’s going to be that 10% to 15% of the patients that come here who might require a higher level of care, but what we’ve done by having them stop here is shave 30 minutes off the start of their treatment,” he said.

Wilson explained that medical staff can start working on easing patients’ pain, stabilizing them or treating their stroke or heart attack sooner. The patient can then be safely transferred to a hospital that can meet their needs instead of traveling a longer distance in a car without immediate treatment. “I’m excited about this emergency department because it will not only save lives, but it will save human suffering,” he said.

Wilson said the reason they built these medical facilities in Saratoga Springs is because “This is our community. As you tour around, you’ll notice so many of our caregivers are from Saratoga Springs or Eagle Mountain or Lehi, and this is their community. They want to serve their community. They want to be a part of the community and we want to grow with the community.”

The intent was to first bring time-sensitive services such as the ER to the community. Then, over time, other medical services will be offered to reduce unnecessary travel and disruption in people’s lives.

“The need is out here. We have a large community. We have a lot of kids who, thanks to YouTube, try new things and may need to visit this location frequently,” Saratoga Springs Mayor Jim Miller said, as quoted in a press release about the facility’s opening. “It is a much-needed blessing to our community. The opening of the Saratoga Springs campus is a milestone in Saratoga’s history.”

The emergency department has 10 rooms, which is comparable to a normal-sized facility, Mitchell explained. While it is a standalone facility, it still functions the same as a normal emergency room, she said.

The ER in Saratoga Springs is considered part of the American Fork Hospital, meaning if a transfer is needed from the Saratoga Springs medical campus to American Fork for more intensive care, emergency surgery or an in-patient bed to stay for longer treatment, the cost of the transfer will be covered by the hospital, not the patient. If a transfer is needed to another hospital, the patient will still cover the cost as usual.

“This emergency department is a fully functional emergency department equipped with life-saving equipment and trained professionals, much like what you would expect at the emergency department in American Fork,” said Dr. Nate Miller, Intermountain Health Saratoga Springs Emergency Department medical director, in the press release.

The surgical center is for same-day surgeries, meaning the surgeries are scheduled in advance. Emergency surgeries will not be performed at the Saratoga Springs medical campus. Some of the areas of surgery offered include gynecology; ear, nose and throat; general surgery; urology; podiatry; ocular plastics; and several others.

For all surgeries performed at the Saratoga Springs medical campus, the expectation is that patients will not need to spend more than 23 hours in the center after their surgery, and most will only spend a few hours recovering before being sent home. If they do require additional overnight services, they will be transferred to American Fork Hospital or another hospital that can meet their needs.

Brynn Beck, administrator of the Intermountain Saratoga Springs surgical center, said about the importance of the surgical center, “The big thing is really just access for the people who live in this community. There’s been so much growth here; it’s just been exponential. But part of that growth has been the struggles with the infrastructure and getting in and out. So really, to have services that are available to the community so that we can stay near home and then recover at home. It’s just, it’s such a big thing.”

Both facilities will have 40 full-time staff, comprised of nurses and other workers. There are currently over 20 surgeons who will perform scheduled surgeries at the Saratoga Springs medical campus, Beck said. There are four operating rooms in the surgical clinic, but as demand increases, the building and land next to it is designed for future expansion to add additional operating rooms.

Placing these medical facilities and services in Saratoga Springs incentivizes medical professionals to move to the community because they will have a place to work, Wilson explained. “We’re hoping that as we develop our hospital-level services in the community, that it will help develop a medical staff, a medical community, more nurses, more doctors that will move and live in this community,” he said. “Because this will create a bit of a center of gravity to draw in more people, more services, and it will just start to build with the growth of the community.”

While the ER is completely owned by Intermountain Health, the surgical center was built in partnership with about 20 surgeons, meaning they own a portion of the surgical center — co-owning it with Intermountain Health.

Wilson explained the reasoning for partnering with the physicians: “In an effort to try and help draw these surgeons into the community, we’ve given them an opportunity to joint venture on that project with us, which is really exciting for them to be able to have ownership and say, ‘This is my surgery center in this community’ and give them that buy in, the same buy in I think we have and feel for the community. So, we hope that that will help foster more growth and again, draw those providers to the community.”

In order for the medical campus to grow, medical professionals and medical providers are first needed in the community so there is someone to meet the demand of the growing population, Wilson explained, adding that the surgeons came from all over Utah County because they recognize the growth in Saratoga Springs and surrounding communities and want to be a part of it. “They’re investing in the community just like we (Intermountain Health) are. We appreciate their support and look forward to working with them,” he said.

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