OUR VISION

Our vision is to become the hospital of choice in Southeast Idaho. We are committed to attracting the finest physicians, providing them the finest environment in which to practice, and the most professional and caring staff available. To fulfill this Vision, we must excel in everything we do. Excellence is our singular passion.

OUR MISSION

Mountain View Hospital strives to be the facility of choice in our community for orthopedic and other surgical procedures, maternity, women’s healthcare services, newborn care, cardiac and specialty imaging services, hyperbaric medicine and wound care. We are committed to the care and concerns of each of our patients. Our professional staff is dedicated to providing the highest quality of individualized care. This family-centered, patient-focused approach to medicine is intended to promote long-term health and well-being, which results in a high degree of patient satisfaction.

OUR HISTORY

In 1999, when the only hospital in Idaho Falls lost its contract with Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Idaho and significant numbers of patients were forced to leave the community to receive healthcare in a "sanctioned" and affordable hospital setting, a group of Idaho Falls physicians began their search for a solution. The community had been a one-hospital town for more than a decade and the specter of managed care that is so prevalent in other parts of the United States was not a pressing issue. What was an issue, however, was the loss of choice for those patients whose healthcare insurance mandated that, for purely economic reasons, they had to be treated outside of Idaho Falls.

Initial research told these physicians that residents of the greater Idaho Falls area and their insurance companies or employers were paying at least $16 million annually for healthcare coverage in other communities-primarily Utah, where healthcare costs were more affordable. It was evident that patients and their families were being forced to travel long distances away from home, with great expense and inconvenience. More importantly, they were forced to seek care from physicians who were licensed to practice in more affordable hospitals. This loss of choice, combined with the inconvenience of travel and lodging, plus the resulting economic impact on Southeast Idaho, provided the stimulus to search for a better alternative.

One of the first challenges was to define the scope of the project. The expectations of the community were very high and were focused on creating a total alternative to the "other" hospital in town. The combination of fulfilling physician requirements, answering the demands of the insurance carriers together with the large employer coalition, and the expectations of the Idaho Falls residents presented a significant challenge.

The scope of the project was defined by the projected volumes of the physicians. The hospital was scaled to provide six operating rooms, six labor/delivery/recovery/postpartum suites, a dedicated caesarean room, a total of twenty private in-patient rooms that could "flex" between varying needs of surgery and obstetrics, two special procedures rooms, for pain procedures and general endoscopy, and a comprehensive imaging department. The imaging department includes MRI, CT, Radiography and Fluoroscopy, Ultrasound, two state-of-the-art Mammography units and Stereo tactic Needle Biopsy.

Mountain View Hospital also includes extensive physical therapy modalities, including an ultra-modern exercise/therapy pool, complete weight room and elevated in-door running track. Within the Mountain View Hospital campus are two medical office buildings for the OBGYN practice group Rosemark Women Care Specialists as well as Summit Orthopaedics.

Groundbreaking took place late in the summer of 2001. At that time it was projected that construction would require approximately one year-with a significant unknown being the severity of the Idaho Falls winter. Site preparation and excavation began earnest, but temperatures were extremely cold. This necessitated pouring concrete for footings, foundation and basement with major artificial heat and insulation so that the resulting cures of the concrete products was within acceptable limits. The spring of 2002 brought relief from the extreme cold, but with it came a period of more than six weeks of high winds, making the erecting of the structural steel yet another challenge.

The construction and development of the project were supervised by a team consisting of the five-member Board of Managers-a group of four physician investors elected by their peers, the other Board member a part of the management group, plus a newly hired CEO. Construction progressed accordingly and on December 2, 2002, Mountain View Hospital began its first surgical cases.

As of 2004, Mountain View Hospital has completed over 4,700 surgeries and delivered more than 1,400 babies. Mountain View Hospital services continue to expand with the addition of our new Cardiac and Special Imaging Laboratory which began seeing patients April 2004. Mountain View Hospital strives to be the community hospital of choice for patients in the Idaho Falls and surrounding areas.