MGRMC is debating between a major expansion or building an entirely new hospital
By Jon Johnson
SAFFORD — Plans for a major expansion of the Emergency Department and surgical suites at Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center have evolved into a far-reaching review of whether to proceed with the original addition or replace the entire hospital.
Randy Bryce, chief operating officer for MGRMC, told the quarterly Community Partnership Panel on Thursday that officials are now carefully comparing costs and the feasibility of both options.
The hospital announced last year it would build a roughly 100,000-square-foot expansion of the ER and surgery areas, with an estimated price tag of about $100 million as of December.
Speaking to the Community Partnership Panel, Bryce placed the project in historical context and called for community backing.
“We have been working on hospital expansion… Most of the facilities that you see are between 50 and 25 years old,” he said. “Our initial approach was to do a major addition to the hospital, which we’ve been going down that road. We’re maybe six or eight months into that. And the further we get down that… we are contemplating an alternative route, which is to replace the hospital. So we have two scenarios that we think are viable.”
He added: “We feel the weight of our ancestors and what they did, and our responsibilities to kind of take that ball and roll. And we know it’s a community thing; we need all of your support as we go through these processes. But it is a big deal. It’s something that will set us up for the future for years and years, if we can do it right. We do feel like there is a narrow window to do it, and we’re trying to get the courage… and try to get this across the finish line. It’s a multiple-year approach; there are many, many factors.”
Bryce explained to the Gila Herald that the original plan focused on relieving cramped conditions in critical service lines.
“Yeah, so we started with the theory that we need to add and expand our feeder service lines, which for us is surgery and the ED, just because we need to expand those services,” he said. “Those are crammed into their spaces, but we also need to develop them.”
However, long-term planning revealed complications on the preferred south-side site.
“We identified us an ideal site, our best choice, which is here on the south side of the hospital. But then we started getting confined. El Paso Natural Gas has a high-pressure gas line that goes right through here,” Bryce said. “It’s actually a parcel they own… We would have to try to address how we would cross it, how we would build next to it, and where we would stage all of these things. And when you’re talking about construction, all of those things turn into risk, and all of the risk turns into money.”
Those added risks and expenses prompted a fresh look at a full replacement.
“What we decided that we need to do is… what does it look like if we just go to a site that’s unencumbered and build a hospital? And so, that’s the investigation that we’re doing at this point,” he continued. “We’ve got to find out in an effort not to waste anybody’s time or money. Is this one still our best bet, or is this one our best bet?”
A potential new hospital site has already been identified on the existing campus, toward the end of 16th Street. If the replacement route is chosen, the current building would not sit empty. Bryce said officials would create an “infield” plan to repurpose the space for non-acute uses.
“We haven’t worked through the infield or the use of this vacated space… We think that there is enough uses for it, that are not acute… It could be office, it could be outpatient services,” he noted, pointing to the recent conversion of the old Roadrunner Rehab space into a conference center as an example.
Surprisingly, Bryce said the per-square-foot costs of the two options are not dramatically different.
“Not that much different, honestly,” Bryce said. “If you are adding on to someone’s house, you are going to have to pay more… than if you were just building a new house. Because then you don’t have to worry about all those things on a per-square-foot basis.”
Bryce said the hospital is roughly halfway through its design and investigative work. The final decision will be made by the MGRMC hospital board.
“We’ve done quite a bit of programming and schematic work for the ED and surgery, and to take that step further to include the whole house.”
The administrative team is working with a financing consultant and the architect originally hired for the expansion project.
No timeline has been set for a recommendation to the board, but leaders say they are proceeding carefully to secure the best long-term outcome for Graham County.
