A new full-service hospital with an emergency room will open in 2019 adjacent to Mountain View Hospital.

The plans for the Idaho Falls Community Hospital were announced recently at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Mountain View Hospital’s new parking garage.

The new hospital is expected to employ about 300 credentialed doctors and more than 200 nurses and supporting positions. It will house an emergency room, in-patient services, an intensive care unit, 88 private rooms, a café and an outdoor patio, according to a news release. The project’s building permit, which was filed in December and first reported by BizMojo Idaho, estimates the project’s cost at $65 million.

Hospital officials said the new facility is a response to a community need for more health care options.

“For a long time people have really enjoyed how they receive health care at Mountain View Hospital, but there are a lot of different aspects of health care that we weren’t able to offer,” said Casey Jackman, Idaho Falls Community Hospital’s new chief operating officer. “This additional hospital is going to be able to offer those additional services.”

Jackman has worked at Mountain View for the past 11 years as the manager of the radiology department, then as director of specialty services.

The new hospital and parking garage projects were devised three to four years ago, according to Mark Hall, Mountain View’s chief operating officer.

“It’s taken many, many years to get to fruition,” Hall said.

The 302-space parking garage will service patients and visitors for both hospitals. Hall said the parking garage was necessary anyway because Mountain View has been growing at a rapid rate, and more patients and more family members need additional parking.

“It’s been hard with space and the ground that we have,” Hall said. “Especially with the new hospital we needed this.”

Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper and Lt. Gov. Brad Little, the Republican nominee for governor, spoke at the ribbon-cutting event, as did Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter.

Casper said the new hospital is tangible evidence that Idaho Falls is growing, which is cause for celebration. The project shows that Idaho Falls is the region’s health care leader and that the era of health care outflow to Utah is over, Casper said.

Idaho Falls Community Hospital is owned by Surgery Partners, a publicly traded company — headquartered in Brentwood, Tenn. — that operates and invests in medical facilities in dozens of U.S. states. Surgery Partners also invests in Mountain View Hospital.

Federal laws prevented Mountain View from expanding, according to an Idaho Falls Community Hospital news release. Instead, the two hospitals — separate organizations, according to Jackman — will share a campus and collaborate on services offered.

“We’re going to be partners together in taking care of patients in different ways,” Jackman said.

A new emergency room and combined services likely will increase competition with Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, the region’s largest hospital and currently the only Idaho Falls facility with an emergency room.

“Competition is a good thing,” Hall said. “The market is growing, the community is growing. It’s important that they have choices.”

Coleen Niemann, EIRMC’s director of marketing and community relations, said EIRMC has been serving the entire southeastern side of Idaho, western Wyoming and Montana for more than 30 years.

“Given the size and scope of our services, we’ll continue to be the premiere facility for taking care of people for all their health care needs,” she said.

Hall said Idaho Falls Community Hospital was an opportunity to expand services, but “it’s driven mainly by competition and a demand from the community.”

Individuals interesting in learning more about the hospital and positions available should visit, www.IdahoFallsCommunityHospital.com.