Idaho Press Tribune, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2015 – by Torrie Cope
Saint Alphonsus plans new Nampa medical office
Saint Alphonsus Health System plans to open a new 10,000-squarefoot medical office building at the corner of Karcher and Middleton roads in Nampa. It will include pediatrics, family care and urgent care services, Saint Alphonsus-Nampa CEO Karl Keeler said. It’s expected to open early 2016.
Keeler said the building’s location will make it easier for patients in rural areas to get care and will help to further the health system’s goal of having a physician within 15 minutes of home. “This is the next step in the evolution of that,” he said. The building will be at an intersection that about 30,000 cars pass through each day, according to the Idaho Transportation Department. ITD and the city of Nampa have partnered to improve the intersection this year. Those improvements will include adding lanes, sidewalks, curbs, gutters and a new traffic signal.
Saint Alphonsus has been working with the city and the state as they move forward with the road improvements, Keeler said. The medical office building is the latest piece in the health system’s expansion in Nampa. Saint Alphonsus spent about $30 million on a new emergency department, maternity center and heart care center at its Nampa Health Plaza at the corner of Interstate 84 and Garrity Boulevard . “Those three main services have done extremely well and have exceeded our expectations,” Keeler said. The emergency department, which opened in February 2013, has already hit the hospital’s five-year projections, Phil Harrop, executive director of operations, said at a Nampa Chamber of Commerce event Thursday. A ribbon cutting will be held Jan. 22 for another addition at the Nampa Health Plaza, a 67,000- square-foot medical office building.
Saint Alphonsus leases space in the building, which was developed and is owned by NexCore Group. OBGYN offices have moved into the new building along with cardiologists, orthopedic surgeons and physical therapy with a physical therapy pool, Keeler said. “This new (medical office building) is being developed around many innovations in architecture and construction sequencing to optimize land utilization, shorten the build time and lower overall project costs,” said Jarrod Daddis in a news release. Daddis is the executive managing director of development and acquisitions at NexCore.
“We have also strategically positioned the (building) on the campus for high visibility along Interstate 84 and convenient adjacency to the existing Health Plaza,” he said. The expansions in Nampa are all designed to bring care closer to home for residents of Nampa and Canyon County, Keeler said. As health care changes with more people insured or using health savings accounts, Saint Alphonsus wants to see people before they get sick and keep them well, he said. “Our philosophy really has changed around how we deliver care,” he said. “We are looking at how we can keep our population well in the communities that we serve. We want to be an active participant in that and continually check that we’re successful.”