OGDEN — MountainStar Health Care announced Tuesday it will open a new satellite emergency center somewhere in Davis County.
MountainStar, which operates Ogden Regional Medical Center, Lakeview Medical Center and Brigham City Community Hospital in Top of Utah, said the facility will be similar to the Lone Peak emergency center it opened in Draper in 2010.
Company spokeswoman Audrey Glasby said the Davis County emergency center will be a fully equipped emergency department, designed to offer emergency services in areas where a new, full hospital is not needed, but an emergency room is.
Glasby said MountainStar and Ogden Regional Medical Center officials have been looking for several years to see where in Top of Utah an emergency room would be needed.
They identified Davis County as a highly populated area where an increasing demand for emergency medical care often leads to longer wait times in area hospitals, she said.
The company also is looking at Davis’ projected growth. The county is projected to build out with a population near 390,000 by the year 2030.
Glasby said the company is looking at three sites between Ogden Regional Medical Center and Lakeview Medical Center in Bountiful.
The new facility will follow the model of the company’s Lone Peak emergency center in Draper. That facility, opened in 2010, is being expanded.
According to MountainStar’s website, in a year it will be a 30-bed hospital “with services such as obstetrics, surgery, 24/7 emergency care, and diagnostic services.”
Davis County is already served by emergency rooms at Lakeview and at Davis Hospital and Medical Center in Layton.
Davis Hospital is operated by IASIS Healthcare.
Glasby said the hope is to have the new facility set up within a year, operating as a satellite to Ogden Regional Medical Center.
“Our new satellite ED (emergency department) will offer immediate transfer capability to Ogden Regional Medical Center, a Level II Trauma Center, whenever necessary,” she said.
“This patient transfer process has been refined at Lone Peak Emergency Center in Draper.”
She said costs for patients at the satellite emergency room will be the same as if they had gone to a hospital-based one.
The benefits of such a facility are closer and faster access for patients and the ability for emergency services personnel to get back to their communities faster.
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