Idaho Falls’ newest hospital set to open in November

It may be a wet and rainy week in Idaho Falls, but construction crews are still on duty at Idaho’s newest hospital.

“We’ve been really lucky. It has caused some problems, but we’re almost all the way dried in,” said Casey Jackman, the chief operating officer at the Idaho Falls Community Hospital. “We’ve been able to keep some of the elements at bay, but it has bit us a little bit.”

Even with the cold weather, the 182,000-square-foot hospital is still on track to open in mid-November. Layton Construction is working on finishing the last of the exterior walls these next few weeks.

“At any given day, we’ve got about 160 people on site working,” Jackman said.

Once construction is all complete, the building will include emergency rooms, intensive care units, inpatient services and more.

“It’ll be quite a bit of space to offer some care to the patients,” Jackman said. “It’s going to be exciting to see an alternative in town.”

The four-story hospital is working closely with Mountain View Hospital, which is next door. Together, the hospitals hope to address every Idahoan’s needs.

“Idaho Falls Community Hospital is going to focus on acute care, where Mountain View Hospital has kind of been an outpatient surgery and labor and delivery facility,” Jackman said.

If you do visit Mountain View Hospital in the next few months, you’ll definitely see some construction and closed entryways. But the hospitals hope that it’ll all be worth it in the end.

“This is being built for the community of Idaho Falls and we’re anxious for people to see inside and what’s coming in the future,” Jackman said.

Once construction is all completed, the two hospitals will share a joint entrance and a lobby.

If you are visiting Mountain View Hospital and get lost, a temporary entrance has been added just to the west of the closed entrance.