For the week of May 12, 1999  thru May 18, 1999  

Hospital expands, costs rise $10 million


By HANS IBOLD
Express Staff Writer

Plans for the new St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center just got bigger.

St. Luke’s made several additions to the original plans following a fund drive that raised $6 million more than the goal of $12 million.

As a result, the facility, to be located just south of Ketchum, will have four more inpatient rooms, an additional intensive care room and a labor/delivery/recovery/postpartum room. New plans also call for a rooftop helistop and nuclear medicine capabilities.

The facility will now include 95,000 square feet of finished hospital areas and an additional 15,000 sq. ft. of unfinished space for future expansion.

Construction is slated to begin this month and doors to the 34-bed hospital are expected to open late in the year 2000.

Initially estimated to cost $21.3 million, the new plans bumped the price tag up to about $31 million.

The added construction costs are being covered by the $18 million donated by Wood River Valley residents and an increased commitment from St. Luke’s, said Will Storey, chairman of the Wood River Community Council that advises the Wood River Medical Center.

"There is no question that we’ll open a much better hospital than was originally projected in 1995," said Wood River Medical Center CEO Jon Moses.

What about that pond that formed magically on the site a few weeks ago?

"It’s part of the wetlands we relocated from the center of the site," said project engineer, Bruce Truxell of Power Engineers.

The pond and the stream—running along the bike path—that feeds it will remain on the site, which will include additional wetlands landscaping.

 

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