Saint Alphonsus Health System | Idaho Business Review

Saint Alphonsus robotic surgery improving outcomes

Surgery underway using advanced robotics at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise.

As the patient lies on the operating table, surrounded by a team of medical professionals, the colorectal surgeon takes his place at the robotic console. With the aid of advanced technology, the surgeon is able to perform a precise and minimally invasive procedure, navigating through the intricate pathways of the patient’s colon with ease. The robotic arms move in perfect sync with the surgeon’s hands, allowing for a level of precision and control that was once unimaginable. The future of surgical innovation is on full display.

Saint Alphonsus Colorectal Surgeon Dr. Sheev Dattani has performed over 500 robotic colorectal surgeries, utilizing the minimally invasive surgical approach to significantly reduce the patient’s length of hospital stay, as well as the likelihood of infection or additional complications.

Saint Alphonsus colorectal cancer surgeon Dr. Sheev Dattani at the controls of the daVinci surgical robot.

“With robotic colon and rectal surgery, there’s a lot of very gentle dissection that’s going on and having those extra arms helps keep everything stable, and I can use these tools to help do the surgery,” Dattani said. “Some of them are vessel sealing devices which very carefully seal vessels. Another one is a titanium stapler, and then I have another instrument that helps me suture. It’s also very good because we’re working in very tight places in the abdomen–so for colorectal surgery, the robot’s perfect.”

Robotic surgical technology allows colorectal surgeons to achieve better results and reduces the chance of suture failure, which can lead to leakage of gastrointestinal contents, resulting in one of the most serious complications of bowel resection surgery. The national average leakage rate is up to 7%. With the robot, however, Dattani maintains a leakage rate of 1.8%.

Saint Alphonsus surgeon Dr. Christopher Reising focuses on robotic technology and minimally invasive surgery. He said the use of robotics is beneficial for a variety of surgeries beyond colorectal–from gynecologic oncology, urology, surgical oncology, to basic general surgery procedures, such as hernia removal, which are sometimes better suited with robotic technology, he added.

Dr. Christopher Reising, general surgeon

“Saint Alphonsus has invested a lot of resources in building a minimally invasive and robotics program. It’s part of our strategic plan to be able to provide that type of care for patients,” Reising said. “We’re seeing much, much less blood loss during cases, usually our blood loss is in the 10 to 20 CC’s per case. I think you’re going to see more advanced surgical procedures becoming less invasive over time with smaller incisions. And that’s been the paradigm shift with robotics.

Along with advancing tools that will continue to support early discharge and early return to function for patients, the technology will also help to decrease the need for narcotics use post-surgery as a result of the smaller incisions.

“We still sometimes have to give narcotics to some patients, but it’s generally a low amount,” Dattani added. “They see me with sometimes very bad problems but then being able to go home within just a day or two and return to mostly normal life, but make a very fast recovery through these small incisions. It’s a big reason why I love robotics.”

Multimodal pain management–optimizing non-narcotic medications that block different receptors in the body–would also play a role in reducing narcotic use post surgery in the future.

is AI in the future of robotics surgery?

Artificial intelligence has found its way in almost every industry, and it’s likely in the future of robotics surgery and healthcare, Dattani added.

“With artificial intelligence, it’s going to be allowing for more precise and autonomous surgery which is kind of scary to think about, but interesting,” he said. “Also, there’s telemedicine. I don’t think that’s going to come in the next 5, 10, 15 years, but it’s something that’s at least talked about in the robotic community and world.”

“That would include doing remote surgery, and to me, I like being right next to my patient, but it’s something that is going on in the robotic community and at least discussed with these companies.”

Dr. Michael Twomey Named Executive Medical Director, Saint Alphonsus Health Alliance

Michael Twomey, MD has been named executive medical director for the Saint Alphonsus Health Alliance.

Twomey comes to Saint Alphonsus from Valley Family Health Care, where he has served as medical director since 2020. He has practiced family medicine in Emmett since 2017.

A graduate of Drexel University College of Medicine, Twomey earned his bachelor of science degree in biology from Villanova University. He completed his residency in family medicine at the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho, serving as chief resident in his final year.

“Dr. Twomey is dedicated to achieving the best medical care and outcomes for our patients at the lowest cost,” Dr. Chodroff said. “His experience in family medicine in rural communities will provide valuable leadership as we seek quality and cost-effective health care.”

Twomey will lead the Alliance clinical team that includes registered nurses, licensed clinical social workers and pharmacists as well as work closely with both independent providers in the Alliance network and the Saint Alphonsus Medical Group.

He has served as a clinical advisor to the Eastern Oregon Clinical Care Organization and has been a leader with other medical directors of the region’s Federally Qualified Health Centers who partner through the Idaho Community Health Center Association.

The Saint Alphonsus Health Alliance is a physician-led network of more than 3,000 employed and independent providers sponsored by Saint Alphonsus Health System. The Alliance represents a new model of healthcare delivery, known as a Clinically Integrated Network (CIN). The CIN is based on a strategy to tightly align physicians, hospitals and payers to provide better access to care, better clinical quality and control costs.

Health providers struggle with electronic health records interoperability

photo of medical records — While electronic health records are an improvement over handwritten ones, there are still gaps, especially between providers. File photo.

Doctors’ handwriting is notoriously challenging, but it turns out electronic health records (EHR) are no panacea either, especially when trying to interoperate between two different medical providers, according to IT experts.

Many medical providers have moved to EHR, but each vendor has its own way of displaying information. And while there have been attempts to develop interoperability standards between them, they don’t always work. There are even competing interoperability standards.

photo of dana hamilton — Dana Hamilton, left

When done well, EHR lets medical professionals convert data into information and look for correlations, said Dana Hamilton, health information systems specialist for Fisher’s Technology, speaking at the Boise Technology Show on May 16. But to do that, the data has to be in a form the computer system can understand, she said.

photo of jon vanderpool — Jon Vanderpool

In 2015, health organizations were required by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that administers the programs, to use a “continuity of care document” (CCD) whenever a patient is referred to another provider’s care, said Jon Vanderpool, IT program manager for St. Luke’s Health System. But there can be different terminology standards, he said.

“Part of the problem is there’s a gap from one EHR to another, especially if they’re different vendors,” he said.

The biggest problem is with unstructured data, or the sorts of notes that medical personnel write down about a patient’s condition. By its very nature, there’s no standard way of converting unstructured data from one format into another.

But even with structured data, there can be problems, especially when exchanging data with another health provider with different processes. One EHR product has 745 places a systolic blood pressure value could be entered, Hamilton said. “Which one are you using?” she asked. “Are you sure?”

Using the same fields is particularly important when doing analysis that might be comparing fields, Hamilton said. Misspellings or incorrect data can also lead to records not being grouped properly, she said. Ensuring that the records are equivalent and the data is valid – a process known as cleaning the data – took her eight months for a single dataset, she said.

In response, networks have been formed to help organizations exchange CCDs, Vanderpool said, such as Carequality and CommonWell Health Alliance.

“All the organizations that participate agree to common data use agreements,” he explained.

That said, there are still multiple networks. St. Luke’s is part of Carequality while Saint Alphonsus Health System is part of Commonwell, but the networks are working on interoperability. Since April, St. Luke’s and Saint Alphonsus have been able to share records, Vanderpool said.

photo of a. patrice burgess — A. Patrice Burgess

Partly to improve interoperability, Saint Alphonsus is standardizing its EHR system to Epic EHR, said A. Patrice Burgess, chief medical informatics officer for Saint Alphonsus. All four of its hospitals currently use the Cerner EHR system, she said.

“Our clinics currently use a variety of systems, but will all be moving to the Epic system along with our hospitals in October,” she said. “When we are on the Epic system, that will allow better communication within our own facilities as well as with other systems that use Epic.”

In the meantime, Idaho health organizations use the Idaho Health Data Exchange, a nonprofit health information exchange formed in 2008.

“We estimated in 2015 that 54% of clinicians in Idaho had the ability to exchange data,” Vanderpool said.

While he didn’t know current figures, he said the gap is closing.

Virtual reality playing a role in health care

photo of vr in healthcare — Virtual reality is increasingly being used in health care, as in this demonstration at a recent event. Photo by Sharon Fisher.

This is the second story in a three-part series on virtual reality.

We’re a ways from using it in areas such as surgery and other medical procedures, but virtual reality (VR) is playing an increasingly larger role in health care.

VR in health care is a booming market. Starting at just $525 million in 2012, the market grew to $976 by 2017, according to Markets and Markets. By 2025, the VR and Augmented Reality (AR) health care industry will be $5.1 billion, according to Grand View Research. Yet another study found that health care virtual reality is expected to grow at a CAGR of 54.5 percent through 2023, according to a report from Research and Markets, while Technavio analysts forecast growth of 28.15 percent from 2019 to 2023.

With its background in gaming, VR’s ability to gamify health care outcomes such as rehabilitation, and its immersive traits that help distract patients from pain, apprehension, or boredom, make it useful. While people’s first thought is often performing surgery remotely, that’s just the beginning, said Howard Rose, CEO of Firsthand Technology, a Seattle-based VR health care company.

“There’s more to VR than surgical simulation,” said Rose, who spoke on Nov. 16 to the Idaho Virtual Reality Council. It can also be used in areas such as mental health, lifestyle, pain relief, and wellness, he said. VR has five “super powers,” he said: It’s immersive, interactive, psychological, cognitive, and emotional.

Pain relief is a particularly promising area, because using VR for it can not only reduce the pain itself, but can also do so at a lower cost – and with less chance of addiction – than by using opioids, Rose said. A number of studies found that using VR, compared with opioids, produced better outcomes in areas such as unpleasantness reduction, time spent thinking about pain, and the amount of fun, he said. Moreover, VR often lasts longer, he said.

“VR has a profound, lasting effect,” Rose said. “It’s not just a distraction.”

In addition to pain relief, VR can also be used in conjunction with therapy for mental health care, such as simulations, phobia cures, and realigning a distorted sense of self, Rose said. “It’s not replacing the therapist, it’s enhancing the ability to provide therapy.”

The complication is finding a way to deliver VR in a clinical fashion, Rose said. “What’s the dose of a game?”

In Idaho, the Saint Alphonsus Health System is fundraising to expand and remodel its Boise infusion room, where patients receive chemotherapy and other supportive medications either intravenously or through a port, said Shelly Gorman, regional service line director for oncology and general surgery. Part of that renovation is expected to include support for VR, she said. “We’re using a portion of the funds raised to bring VR experiences to our patients while they’re spending hours undergoing chemotherapy and other treatment,” she said.

For example, the clinic could use VR’s immersion ability to help treat the nausea that such treatments sometimes produce, Gorman said. “Maybe they’re traveling, or maybe they’re getting away to the beach,” she said. “We plan to have a wide range of experiences available to them.” Providing VR would cost from $30,000 to $40,000, she said.

In addition, VR could help reduce pain and anxiety for such patients, said Keri Monson, nursing supervisor for cancer care infusion. “Pain creates anxiety, and a lot of our cancer patients are pain patients,” she said. Chemotherapy itself can also cause pain, she added.

photo of st. luke's virtual care center — St. Luke’s Virtual Care Center doesn’t yet support virtual reality, but it may in the future. Photo courtesy of St. Luke’s.

The St. Luke’s Virtual Care Center, which opened in August, is a Boise-based “virtual hospital,” intended to provide people in remote, underserved communities with access to specialty and emergency providers without having to make a trip to Boise. While the facility doesn’t yet offer VR or AR functionality, that could happen in the future, said Krista Stadler, senior director of telehealth services. “We don’t have plans to date,” she said. “We are definitely keeping tabs on what is happening nationally with other health services.”

St. Luke’s is looking at VR to see how it might apply in Idaho, whether in the hospital, in clinics, or in patients’ homes, Stadler said. “The goal would be to find out how that application would be most effective, and for what conditions, and how to deploy it,” she said.

Saint Alphonsus CEO resigns

Rodney Reider is leaving his position as CEO and president of Saint Alphonsus Health System, effective July 30.

The hospital system announced July 30 that Sally Jeffcoat, executive vice president of Trinity Health and former CEO of the health system, would assume the leadership role immediately.

Saint Alphonsus spokesman Mark Snider would not comment on the reason for the departure, saying only that it was a personnel matter.

Reider became CEO of Saint Alphonsus in 2015 after serving as president of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise for five years, according to the organization.

The departure is the second in a month; Odette Bolano, who was hired as president of the Boise Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in December 2015, left for a job at 21^st Century Oncology in Florida effective July 6, Snider said.

State healthcare apprenticeship program adds skilled workers in Idaho hospitals

photo of LaKalyn Thomas — LaKalyn Thomas, of the St. Luke’s Health System medical assistant program, prepares for patients. Photo by Fiona Montagne.

A healthcare apprenticeship program is helping Idaho hospitals obtain some of the skilled workers they need.

Similar to the software engineering apprenticeship program, the Idaho Hospital Association, in cooperation with the Department of Labor, provides Idaho employers with tools for apprenticeships, said John Russ, IDOL apprenticeship coordinator. For now, there are two healthcare programs, one for medical assistants and one for critical care nursing, he said.

The medical assistant internship program is operated through St. Luke’s Health System, said Chris Southard, workforce registered nurse manager for St. Luke’s ambulatory clinic, in Boise. Candidates join the program either from IDOL or an internal pool, and require either six months’ prior experience as a certified nursing assistant or patient specialist, or six months of health experience, she said.

People are brought into the program as a medical-assistant-in-training, starting at about $13 an hour, Southard said. After nine to 12 months of academic and on-the-job training, they are eligible to become a certified medical assistant, at which point they earn $14.72 an hour, she said.

The program has 13 apprentices in the Treasure Valley, five in the Wood River Valley, and two in McCall, Southard said. Ideally, they would like to bring on 10 new apprentices every three months for a goal of 40 students, and they have a link on their job board for applicants to the July cohort of the program, she said.

“We did have some individuals who did not meet some of the pre-employment criteria or, post-hire, live up to our system values,” Southard said. “We had to make some tough decisions there. We want them to follow the same standard as any St. Luke’s employee.” Otherwise, the program has been going well, she said. “The candidates are really dedicated to their learning, and take on-the-job training very seriously. They come prepared to clinic, and meet the expectations of the program.” They’ve also gotten great feedback from the clinics, she added.

Saint Alphonsus Health System uses the apprenticeship program to train nurses for its Intensive Care Unit, said Claire Jones, director of critical care in Boise. “We were perpetually trying to train and onboard new, competent, and seasoned ICU nurses,” she said. “Our vacancy rate couldn’t keep up.” The organization developed its own six-month training program and then learned about the apprenticeship program at IDOL, which they used starting with cohort 3, which graduated five months ago.

Saint Alphonsus has eight residents in cohort 4, six of whom are in Boise and two of whom are on the Nampa campus, said Cindy Malinowski, nurse educator specialist for critical care. The next cohort, beginning in August, will have 12, she said.

The program has worked out well, Malinowski said. “The week after cohort 3 graduated, we had one of our graduates taking care of the sickest patient you could possibly muster in this unit,” she said. “She was only a week out of residency, and you would never have known, in terms of her level of performance, ability to manage an acute setting, and do it with confidence and skill.”

Moreover, all the apprentices who completed the program are still working for one of Saint Alphonsus’ three Boise units or on its Nampa campus, Malinowski said. The apprenticeships typically start as a graduate nurse or a registered nurse II, earning $27 to $30 an hour, Jones said. A critical care competency ladder lets graduates earn raises by pursuing specialties and documenting their competency, she said.

For the August cohort, Saint Alphonsus opened the program to external hires, and had 121 applicants, which they weeded down to 87, and then interviewed 22, Jones said. Final hires came from North Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, the Dakotas, and the Midwest, she said.

“We had used this as an internal market development retention tool, but it was robbing Peter to pay Paul by taking acute care nurses and making them ICU nurses,” she said.

Police and paramedics will get dedicated space at Saint Alphonsus in Nampa

St. Alphonsus Health System will build a warehouse including space for paramedics and a police station between its Nampa Hospital and the Holiday Inn Express. Photo courtesy of Saint Alphonsus Health System.

St. Alphonsus Health System is building a 19,000-square-foot structure in Nampa that will include stations for Nampa police and Canyon County paramedics.

Saint Alphonsus is setting aside about 1,100 square feet for Canyon County Paramedics Station 46 and about 600 square feet for a work station for the Nampa Police Department at its year-old Nampa medical center on Garrity Boulevard.

“It is not a police sub station, just a workstation,” Saint Alphonsus spokesman Mark Snider said. “There will be no public access.”

The structure will offer kitchen and sleeping quarters for paramedic crews. The paramedics will start with a 12-hour shift at Saint Alphonsus Medical Center Nampa I-84/Garrity, and might eventually staff the facility full-time, according to a Saint Alphonsus news release.

The Nampa Police Department and Canyon County Ambulance District will not be charged rent, the release noted.

Construction on the nearly $1 million project started at the end of May with completion expected in fall. LCA Architects of Boise is the architect and Kreizenbeck Constructors of Boise is the general contractor.

Old Nampa hospital still up for grabs

Saint Alphonsus Health System is willing to donate its shuttered Nampa hospital. Photo by Teya Vitu.

The doors have been locked at the old Saint Alphonsus Medical Center on 12^th Avenue since June 19, a fluttering flag in front of the structure the only acknowledgment that Saint Alphonsus Health System is working behind the scenes to find someone to take the keys.

A couple years ago, the state of Idaho considered obtaining the 241,000-square foot, four-story 1968 structure originally built as Mercy Medical Center. Saint Alphonsus officials were willing to donate the property, but the state declined.

“Saint Alphonsus is continuing to assess options for their former hospital located at 12th Avenue Road in Nampa,” said Brad Hoaglun, Saint Alphonsus’ director of marketing, communications and public relations at Saint Alphonsus Health System, in a prepared statement. “When Saint Alphonsus announced the building of their new hospital at I-84 and Garrity Boulevard, it also announced that the former hospital site could be donated to an organization that would be most beneficial to the Nampa community.”

Saint Alphonsus moved its main Nampa hospital from 12^th Avenue to the new Saint Alphonsus Medical Center Nampa I-84/Garrity on June 19. On Sept. 27, the two-story, 40,000-square-foot Saint Alphonsus Neighborhood Hospital opened in front of the recently shuttered 12^th Avenue hospital.

“Several different entities have looked at the former hospital and some have been in discussions with Saint Alphonsus about utilizing the site,” Hoaglun said. “Saint Alphonsus is willing to donate the building to an entity, most likely a non-profit or government service, which serves the Nampa area. Saint Alphonsus is not looking to retain ownership of the building or property.”

Saint Alphonsus has an eye on Twin Falls

Saint Alphonsus Health System has had an initial discussion with Twin Falls city officials about establishing a Magic Valley health care facility.

Saint Alphonsus’ presence stretches between Boise and Baker City, Ore., with four hospitals and 85 other health care locations – but Saint Alphonsus has no facilities east of Boise. Now the health system, which is owned by Trinity Health in Michigan, is looking at new areas adjacent to its service area, said Saint Alphonsus spokesman Josh Schlaich.

Saint Alphonsus may consider a smaller “neighborhood” hospital for Twin Falls similar to the one opening later in September at Nampa’s old hospital site on 12^th Avenue. The health system also has a small hospital planned for a site next to Whole Foods in Boise, but that is “not set in stone,” Schlaich said.

“There is no concrete plan in place at this time,” Schlaich said. “At this point, it’s merely a hypothetical. We had very preliminary discussion with Twin Falls.”

Saint Alphonsus proposes small hospital next to Whole Foods

Saint Alphonsus plans a neighborhood hospital next to Whole Foods with eight exam rooms. Image from the Boise Planning and Development Services website. — Saint Alphonsus Health System plans to build a small hospital next to Whole Foods with eight exam rooms and eight inpatient beds. Image from the Boise Planning and Development Services website.

Saint Alphonsus Health System proposes building a two-story, 18,215-square-foot hospital on the Myrtle Street vacant lot next to Whole Foods in downtown Boise, according to a June 27 submission to Boise Planning & Development Services.

The application for a conditional-use permit describes a small hospital with eight exam rooms, eight inpatient beds and an imaging department with X-ray and CT scan, according to the proposal prepared by Kimley-Horn & Associates, a Salt Lake City design consulting firm.

Saint Alphonsus is in the process of building another neighborhood hospital on the parking lot next to its former Nampa hospital on 12^th Avenue to continue serving the south side of Nampa after the opening of the new Saint Alphonsus Medical Center – Nampa – I84 & Garrity.

Saint Alphonsus is building the downtown Boise neighborhood hospital within five short blocks of the flagship St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center and within four blocks of a Primary Health Medical Group urgent care center.

The Saint Alphonsus neighborhood hospital is proposed for a lot that as vexed three prior large-scale proposals. File photo. — The Saint Alphonsus neighborhood hospital is proposed for a lot that has proved vexing for developers in the past. File photo.

This 7.04-acre lot it chose has resisted development since Whole Foods was first announced in 2007. A developer proposed a 17-story hotel and condo tower that was scaled back to seven stories in 2008 and eliminated by 2010 at the depth of the recession.

The same developer, Schlosser Development of Austin, Texas, in 2011 filed a drawing with Boise Planning & Development Services for a 12-story office building with eight floors office, three floors parking and retail on ground floor for the land between Whole Foods and Myrtle Street. That plan never proceeded.

Then in August 2015, Ram Development of Charlotte, N.C., proposed building a five-story, 106-room hotel for that lot but withdrew the proposal a couple months later.

Even with all those proposals, the Myrtle Street lot is zoned R-ODD residential office. Saint Alphonsus and its joint-venture partner Emerus are seeking a conditional use permit to allow for a hospital.

PhiloWilke Partnership of Houston is the architect.

Saint Alphonsus did not have more details about the downtown Boise neighborhood hospital itself.

“While it’s still quite early in the planning process at this point, there are a few details I can provide you,” Saint Alphonsus spokesman Josh Schlaich said. “For context, a neighborhood hospital is a new approach to providing convenient, expedient access to emergency services and short-stay, low-acuity inpatient beds for a local neighborhood. “

Schlaich continued that the neighborhood hospital will have 24/7 emergency access and will assist in the growing number of patients in the emergency room at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center on Curtis Road.

Saint Alphonsus has no downtown Boise health care center now. Saint Alphonsus has six hospitals in Idaho and Oregon, five outpatient health plazas and 12 urgent care centers across the Treasure Valley.

Saint Alphonsus meshes ER with family care at new Nampa neighborhood hospital

Saint Alphonsus Neighborhood Hospital will be Saint Alphonsus' new health care presence on 12th Avenue in Nampa. Image courtesy of Saint Alphonus Health System. — Saint Alphonsus Neighborhood Hospital will be Saint Alphonsus’ new health care presence on 12th Avenue in Nampa. Image courtesy of Saint Alphonus Health System.

Saint Alphonsus Health System will replace its Nampa hospital on 12^th Avenue with a scaled-down hybrid of an urgent care clinic and emergency care hospital to continue serving the southern parts of Nampa.

Saint Alphonsus broke ground in early December on a two-story, 40,000-square-foot Saint Alphonsus Neighborhood Hospital in the parking lot of the full-service hospital that has served Nampa on that site since 1968.

As Saint Alphonsus committed to relocating its primary Nampa hospital to Garrity Boulevard and Interstate 84, the health care provider pledged to continue offering limited services at the old hospital location.

Instead of retrofitting a nearly 50-year-old structure, Saint Alphonsus chose to start all over with a building specifically designed for emergency care yet easily accessible for patients, Saint Alphonsus spokesman Josh Schlaich said.

“Having emergency care closer to home is important for a better outcome,” Schlaich said about having a neighborhood hospital for south Nampa.

The $50 million neighborhood hospital, open 24/7, will have a ground floor emergency room, ambulatory room for outpatient services and eight short-stay inpatient rooms for one or two nights, Schlaich said.

“We’re building something between hospital services and urgent care,” he said. “They are not going to be doing open heart surgery there.”

The second floor will have a primary care (or family practice) clinic, a relocation of the Saint Alphonsus Iowa Clinc. It will have a radiology lab and a lab to draw blood.

The neighborhood hospital is expected to open in fall 2017. Until then, the ER at the existing hospital will remain open as the rest of the hospital moves to Garrity until the neighborhood hospital opens. Saint Alphonsus Medical Center Nampa I-84/Garrity is expected to open in summer, Schlaich said.

The architect is Houston-based PhiloWilke Partnership with Boise’s LCA Architects designing the second-floor primary care clinic. The general contractor is Andersen Construction in Boise.

Saint Alphonsus has proposed to donate the existing 152-bed hospital building at 12^th Avenue to the state of Idaho.

Saint Alphonsus will build new Garrity Clinic in Nampa

Saint Alphonsus' new Garrity Clinic will be the largest among its 70 clinics. Image courtesy of Saint Alphonsus Health System. — Saint Alphonsus’ new Garrity Clinic will be the largest among its 70 clinics. Image courtesy of Saint Alphonsus Health System.

Saint Alphonsus Health System will build its biggest clinic on the same 38-acre property as the Saint Alphonsus Medical Center – Nampa I-84 & Garrity, which is now under construction.

Construction on the 16,000-square-foot Garrity Clinic will start in mid-September and should be completed about the same time the hospital opens some time in spring, said Josh Schlaich, spokesman for Saint Alphonsus.

The Garrity Clinic will be the largest of the 70 Saint Alphonsus clinics between Boise and Baker City. The clinics offer varying services, usually anchored by primary care and urgent care.

The Garrity Clinic is located on 3.5 acres and will offer primary care, urgent care, pediatrics, ear, nose and throat care and occupational medicine. It will have 36 exam rooms, three procedure rooms and one X-ray room, Schlaich said.

LCA Architects designed the clinic and Kreizenbeck Constructors is the general contractor. Both are Boise companies.

The new Garrity Clinic replaces an existing Garrity Clinic across from Lakeview Park.

“This is a great opportunity to be adjacent to the hospital,” Schlaich said.

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