Checking the Charts of Utah's Hospitals.

• Author: Olson, Adam
• Position: Industry Overview

The years between 1990 and 2000 certainly did not represent a banner decade for U.S. medical centers. Within that 10-year span, almost 500 hospitals across the nation shut their doors for good. In Utah, a few headlined hospital closures and struggling medical centers have seemed to mirror, to some degree, this national trend of economic woe.

How healthy, overall, is Utah's hospital industry? Should a few high-profile closures cause Utahns concern over the well-being of the state's more than 55 hospitals and medical centers?

While hospital growth is down nationwide, Utah hospitals are actually expanding, despite a few struggles by the University of Utah Hospital and its health network, and newcomer Rocky Mountain Medical Center, which recently closed its doors after unsuccessfully scraping for a handhold in the market. That growth is good news for Utah since hospital stays and emergency room visits are up across the country.

Growing Stronger

IHC's network of hospitals continues to prove itself healthy. Plans to create IHC's new Intermountain Medical Center on State Street in Murray, on the site where the Murray smoke stacks once stood, are already underway. The trauma-one facility is scheduled for completion in 2006 and will take over as the healthcare giant's flagship.

The Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City has plans to build new clinical space north of the institute that will contain 40 beds -- freeing up 40 beds at University Hospital.

The C, D and E wings of Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo are currently being replaced by a $25 million, four-story, 105,000 square foot building.

Ogden Regional Medical Center is in the midst of constructing a new building to replace its dated, seismically-unsafe existing facility.

Even facilities that appear to be struggling are counting on expansion to give them a financial jump-start. The University Hospital and its health network, while laboring through another tough period, hope to find stability within the next few years by building a new 110,000 square foot building just north of the existing hospital, creating more operating rooms and a bigger emergency room.

National Recognition Adds to Overall Picture of Health

Expansion isn't the only way Utah medical facilities are remaining strong. The state's hospital facilities are also being recognized nationally for their quality healthcare, which adds to their overall picture of good health.

According to U.S. News, out of more than 6,247 institutions studied in 2000, the University...