Riverton » Children suffering from a lung infection called RSV and overtaking Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City will have a new option for getting their oxygen treatments next winter: For the first time, the state's only pediatric hospital will open an inpatient satellite center in this suburb.
The 30-bed, inpatient pediatric unit will open in the Riverton Hospital this fall. Riverton Hospital opened in October, the newest community hospital in the Intermountain Healthcare system, which also operates Primary Children's. Primary's is the only pediatric hospital in the Intermountain West, treating patients in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada and Montana.
Riverton opened with a Primary Children's outpatient center for minor surgeries. The new inpatient unit will care for children who need to stay overnight for health issues such as fevers, dehydration, pneumonia, asthma and jaundice. It will send trauma patients, along with children who need speciality care -- such as for cancer or cardiovascular disease -- to Salt Lake City.
The new beds are expected to be full in the winter with babies sick from respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. The Riverton unit will alleviate overcrowding in Salt Lake City, where there have been more patients than beds in the past two weeks due to the lung infection.
Various community hospitals have asked for Primary Children's pediatric units over the past decade, but it wasn't until the population grew that it became viable.
"We have a critical mass of children," said Edward Clark, Primary Children's medical director.
Up to 35 percent of the patients who go to Primary Children's in Salt Lake City will find the Riverton one more convenient. It will draw patients from the northern end of Utah County, along with Riverton, Herriman, South Jordan, Sandy, Draper and West Valley City.
Joe Mott, Primary CEO, said the unit will cost $4.2 million. It will employ up to seven doctors and 15 nurses.
