New West Valley hospital starts construction, hoping to bridge health disparities 

Before Dennis Menjivar became a first-year medical student, he was a 5-year-old West Valley City resident who had to watch his dad drive miles to the east, past Interstate 15, to take his grandfather to medical appointments at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute.

That experience helped shape his life goals then, and now that he’s 25 years old, he also holds that memory as a crucial lesson on resilience and the importance of family support. But, at the same time, the trip was a reminder of disparities prevailing along the Wasatch Front, where I-15 has historically been a divider that has dictated where investment is located.

That’s about to change with the incoming Eccles Hospital and Health Campus, an 800,000-square-foot University of Utah project that’s set to bring the institution’s largest off-campus medical facility to the west side of the valley, with room for a multi-specialty health center offering 200 exam rooms and an emergency department, in addition to an in-patient hospital with 130 rooms. The campus also means that Menjivar will have the chance to serve his own community as a doctor. 

“First and foremost, it’s a place of healing, but it will be more than that,” Menjivar said during a groundbreaking ceremony for the facility on Friday. “This hospital is going to bring us closer to health care. It’s going to bring access to our community, more opportunity for jobs, for increased representation and for trust.”

Combined, West Valley residents travel over 12 million miles a year for treatment since specialty health care isn’t much available in their communities. Nine out of 10 in-patient beds in Salt Lake County are also on the east side of I-15, according to Gina Hawley, chief operating officer for University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics.

“Studies have shown that where you don’t have health care closer to a community, that’s easily accessible, that’s provided by providers and staff members that are from that community, that know that community well, you actually have worse outcomes in the long term, which is why it’s so important for us to have a hospital and clinic out in West Valley,” Hawley said. 

West-siders face health disparities, including life expectancies 10 years lower than their east-side counterparts, as well as a 44% greater prevalence of diabetes and a 38% higher prevalence of stroke, according to a U. report.

“The biggest thing is it’s disconnected. There’s not one big health care system, like we have systems there, but nothing really feels like one big, interconnected system that has a lot of resources and a lot of access,” Menjivar told Utah News Dispatch. “It’s not to say that the hospitals (on the west side) are bad necessarily, or they’re not trying, but they just don’t have as much capacity as a place like the University of Utah does.” 

The project had been a couple of years in the making, but Friday marked the official start of the building that promises to breach gaps in health care access in the valley. The multi-specialty center phase is scheduled to open in late 2028 and the in-patient hospital by 2029.

The hospital campus’ name was coined after a $75 million gift from George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation. But, the hospital is expected to fund most of its estimated $855 million budget with $800 million in bonds allocated by the Utah Legislature.

Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, who grew up in Taylorsville said during the ceremony that, as a west-sider, she understands the importance of such a feat. 

“U.S. News and World Report just ranked Utah the best state in the nation for the third year in a row. Now these are things that we love to brag about as leaders of the state, and they’re things we should brag about. They’re things to be very proud of,” Henderson said. “And in terms of health care, we are ranked high as well. Health care outcomes, we’re in top 10. But in health care accessibility, we’re 35 of 50. We can do better. We need to do better. We are going to do better.”

Apart from the accessibility solutions, the hospital is also meant to be a place reflective of the area, the most diverse in the state. 

Community committees have repeatedly met, helping shape the vision for the campus — one that includes providers that look and sound like their neighbors, and place a special emphasis on different cultural sensitivities in the area.

During the event, University of Utah President Taylor Randall reflected on the community that has made time to connect with their new neighbors and help make this new facility a substantial asset for the area, and potentially, an important part of Utah doctors’ educational journey.

“These are the types of projects that, to me, are the reason I like to lead an educational institution, because they are projects that bring people together,” Randall said. “They are projects that make us wrestle with the hard problems of society, but they give us momentum and hope that what we will see in the future is something better than what we see today.”