New emergency care coming to Hurricane

When it comes to emergency medical care, every minute counts; and if you live outside the St. George area, those minutes can really add up.

But not for long, if you’re near Hurricane.

In about a year, residents living in and around the Hurricane Valley will have considerably fewer minutes distance between their homes and high-quality emergency care, thanks to the Intermountain Hurricane Emergency Department opening early in 2023.

“Our purpose is to provide care where people need it,” said Dr. Brett Christiansen, emergency medicine medical director and executive officer of Southwest Emergency Physicians. “The community in Hurricane and the surrounding area is growing. It’s time to have a facility closer to the people living there.”

Intermountain St. George Regional Hospital will still serve as the stroke center, heart center and trauma center. But everything else that might bring someone to the emergency department can be handled in the Hurricane Emergency Department.

“It’ll be a regular emergency center,” Dr. Christiansen said. “Belly pains, infections, arm injuries, lacerations… It will be the same physicians staffing the Hurricane Center so it will be the same level of high-quality care.”

Those in need of stroke, heart or trauma services will be transported to St. George Regional Hospital. But Dr. Christiansen said having the ability to accept patients at two emergency departments will not only bring quality care closer to Hurricane residents, but it should also alleviate the strain on the St. George emergency department as well.

“We’re setting records for the number of patients we see in the emergency department almost every day,” Dr. Christiansen said. “Eventually we hope to see them open patient beds at the Hurricane facility and continue to expand from there.”

The first week of January is typically a busy time in the emergency department because many doctors’ offices are closed for the holidays. This year, Dr. Christiansen said COVID-19 is bringing more patients into the emergency department as well, in addition to the RSV and influenza infections the department usually sees.

“Infections are the main issue during the winter months,” Dr. Christiansen said. “In the summer we see more with trauma and heat, but in the winter it’s things like influenza, RSV and now COVID-19.”

There is generally an influx of tourists in the winter season as well – people from outside the area taking advantage of the great southern Utah weather to recreate. But that can bring more infections, and an increase in recreation-related accidents. All of which Dr. Christiansen said they treat regularly in the emergency department.

“The Hurricane Center will be a free-standing emergency department in the beginning; then it will grow in stages,” Dr. Christiansen said. “I think it’s going to grow very quickly. Intermountain can see the long-term needs and they’re getting out ahead of it.”

This LiVe Well column represents collaboration between healthcare professionals from the medical staffs of our not-for-profit Intermountain Healthcare hospitals and The Spectrum & Daily News.