With the purchase of a lot in Hailey, St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center is set to build a new family practice clinic.
The Boise-based hospital system's board of directors announced on Tuesday that it had approved the purchase of a two-acre parcel across from Hailey Nursery on Aviation Drive in Hailey. The site is in the Airport West light-industrial park.
St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center's board of directors had approved the plan in early November, but it still needed approval from the system board, which includes representatives of the nine St. Luke's-associated hospitals. Bruce Jensen, CEO of St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center, presented the plan to the board.
The new facility will house Wood River Family Medicine, a medical clinic now housed in the Blaine Manor building on South Main Street in Hailey.
"We've been looking at land and options for almost five years," Jensen said Thursday. "With the Blaine Manor situation, it put some urgency into our thinking and actions."
The county-owned Blaine Manor building—which also houses a senior-care facility—is slated to be sold. The proceeds would go to the nonprofit Croy Canyon Ranch Foundation, which plans to eventually build a new continuing-care facility west of Hailey in Croy Canyon.
"This (new) property was attractive to us for several reasons, but mostly due to the size of the lot," Jensen said. "The location will allow us to build a beautiful new clinic, which can accommodate growth in the future."
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The plan is for the new medical office building to be in business by the fall of 2010. It will be designed and built by the hospital group's in-house architecture and construction department.
"They'll manage it and get the subs," Jensen said. "The bids are put out locally. We try to hire local subs."
The new facility will employ 22 people, the same number now employed at Wood River Family Medicine. That includes nine doctors, "mid-levels" such as physicians' assistants, nurses and support staff.
"We're still working out what else will go in there in terms of additional services," Jensen said. "We are very excited about this project."
Jensen said the hospital plans to break ground for the new building in spring 2008.
"It will be a modern medical office building providing services for that part of the county," he said. "There will be new equipment as well as the X-ray and MRI that are already in use."
He said two new family physicians are in the process of signing agreements to start working at the existing clinic. He said that until the new building is completed, the current Wood River Family Medicine offices in Hailey will operate as usual.
A two-acre lot near Friedman Memorial Arport in Hailey has been approved for purchase by St. Luke?s Wood River as the site of the future Wood River Family Medicine clinic.
