Officials of the Fountain Hills Medical Center hosted a briefing for Town officials on Nov. 8 to update them on the progress of plans for Phase II of the facility. When complete, it will be a fully certified hospital in the community.

Currently the Medical Center operates with a fully certified freestanding emergency department, as well as a walk-in and primary care clinic at the site at Saguaro Boulevard and Trevino Drive.

Clinical Director Dr. Meka Ezeume told the group that Phase II will expand the facility by approximately 17,000 square feet. The building will attach to the existing building, extending to the west. The expanded hospital will include 10 to 15 patient beds, two operating rooms, a cardiac catheterization lab and special procedure lab, subspecialty clinical space, additional laboratory services, pharmacy, MRI, nuclear medicine including stress testing, inpatient and outpatient therapy space and additional administration space.

On completion of Phase II the hospital will be able to accept ambulance traffic.

Dr. Ezeume said the plans for the expansion are currently undergoing review by state officials. He said that should be complete within a few weeks. At that time, they will provide construction plans to the Town of Fountain Hills for review and approval. That could take anywhere from several weeks to several months to complete. Town Manager Grady Miller said due to limited town staff, they expect to send the plans to a third party for review, as was done with the initial phase of the project.

The emergency room and clinic have been open since April, treating about 20 patients per day with nearly all manner of emergency maladies, about 7,000 patient contacts since opening. Emergency Medicine Medical Director Dr. Scott Schleifer said the reception from the community generally has been very positive.

Schleifer said the emergency room currently has transfer agreements with three Valley hospital organizations. Its agreement with Honor Health was its first agreement and then followed by arrangements with Banner Health and Mayo Clinic Hospital.

Upon completion of Phase II there will no longer be a need to transfer patients.

The emergency room and clinic currently have about 30 employees (10 per shift) and that is expected to increase by another 30 to 50 employees with the additional space.

Phase III for the hospital is still expected, but is no longer planned for the next phase of construction.