On August 29, Intermountain Garfield Memorial Hospital in Panguitch broke ground for their first expansion in decades. The new expansion will add a new operating room which will expand the services offered at the hospital. Pharmacy services will also be enhanced.
To this point, one of the major constraints the hospital has faced in providing some services is the lack of ventilation in the operating room, preventing the use of anesthesia gas. This problem will be solved with the new expansion, allowing the hospital to perform additional surgeries.
“We are excited for this new expansion as our community would typically have to travel many miles away to have certain procedures like a tonsillectomy,” said DeAnn Brown, president of the hospital. “Now they get to stay close to home, near their families, making their care more convenient and comfortable.”
Intermountain Health, which operates the hospital owned by Garfield County, expects the expansion will allow for elective surgeries such as hernia repair, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and tonsillectomies. The new operating room will also double as a gastroenterology suite, where staff will continue providing screening colonoscopies and EGDs.
Beside the additional operating room, the new ventilation system will allow the pharmacy to mix IV medications in a sterile environment.
“This is a blessing to us,” said Garfield County Commissioner Leland Pollock. “In a town of 1,900 people, to have a hospital that competes with big city hospitals, and the care we give, it is unheard of in the United States. Our performance ratings, patient scores and quality of care are always near the top.”
VCBO Architecture and Hughes Construction have been contracted to head up the expansion project, which is scheduled for completion in early 2026.
– by AJ Martel, The Byway
Read more Garfield Memorial Hospital news in Garfield Memorial Dr. Richard Birch Retires.
AJ Martel – Escalante
AJ Martel is the youth coordinator at The Byway, but he is involved in most everything. He and his family live in Escalante, and they love it here! AJ has found Utah’s small towns quite inviting and under-defended, which is why he’s so involved with the paper. What AJ loves to do most, though, is serve his community. That is clear through everything he writes and does for Escalante, Utah.