SAFFORD — A planned expansion of the Emergency Department and surgical suites at Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center has morphed into a new possibility — a complete replacement of the entire hospital.
Randy Bryce, chief operating officer for MGRMC, said during the quarterly Community Partnership Panel Thursday that hospital officials are reviewing the costs for both options.
“There are certain expenses related to doing an additional project that you don’t have to worry about if you do a new build. So that’s really what we’re trying to tease out — what is the best path forward that gives us the most value,” Bryce said.
It was announced last year that the hospital planned to complete a 100,000-square-foot expansion of the ER and surgical areas. As of last December, cost was estimated at about $100 million.
Bryce said during the planning phase, a number of issues were discovered, including a natural gas line that runs through the hospital campus that forced the movement of the outpatient pharmacy currently under construction. It’s issues like that, Bryce said, that has hospital officials considering development of a new facility.
He said no decision has yet been made as to whether to build and, if so, should building take place on the existing campus or a different location and use the existing campus for other medical services.
It was also announced that the Pharmacy at Mt. Graham should be open to the public by the end of July, and the new Copper Mountain Clinic Thatcher, on the campus of Eastern Arizona College, should be open to the public by the end of June or early July.
