Dixie Regional Medical Center to hold grand opening celebration, concert featuring The Piano Guys

An aerial view of the Dixie Regional Medical Center River Road campus, date and location not specified | Photo courtesy of Dixie Regional Medical Center, St. George News

FEATURE — The Dixie Regional Medical Center expansion project that began construction April 2016 is nearly complete, and the hospital is holding a grand opening event to celebrate growing together as a center for health care.

The grand opening celebration is free to attend and will take place Sept. 12 from 7:30-8:30 p.m. The Piano Guys, a world renowned music group with roots in St. George, will perform a miniconcert and the event will include free popcorn, food trucks and a fireworks show.

The Piano Guys, the world renowned music group that will be performing at the Dixie Regional Medical Center grand opening event, date and location not specified | Photo courtesy of Dixie Regional Medical Center, St. George News

The concert will be held in the new seven-tiered east parking lot at the Dixie Regional Medical Center River Road campus, which can accommodate approximately 10,000 attendees. Seating will be park style, and guests should bring their own lawn chairs and blankets for the show. In case of poor weather, the concert will be relocated to the Dixie State University Burns Arena.

“We are planning a fantastic community celebration to celebrate the growing together, the coming together, of all of these different services,” said Shawn Fielding, communications specialist for Dixie Regional Medical Center.

Festivities begin Sept. 12 with a VIP dinner for special guests and donors, followed by the community event and concert. The celebration continues through Sept. 15 with self-guided tours of the new buildings and health centers, and a Growing Together Ceremony Sept. 13 at 5 p.m. Self-guided tours will take place on Sept. 13 and 14 from 3-7 p.m., and on Sept. 15 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. alongside the 28th annual DRMC Health Fair from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Piano Guys started as a local music group in St. George. Now, they travel the world performing concerts and creating classically influenced viral instrumental music videos in unusual and beautiful locations around the world including places like the Great Wall of China, Rio de Janeiro and Petra.

The group is comprised of pianist and songwriter Jon Schmidt, cellist and songwriter Steven Sharp Nelson, music producer and songwriter Al van der Beek, and producer and videographer Paul Anderson. Schmidt and Nelson first performed together when they were 15 years old.

The Piano Guys’ mission is to inspire people and make the world a better place through music. The group will be returning to Southern Utah to perform full-length concerts at Tuacahn Amphitheatre Nov. 8-10.

“It just felt right that this momentous occasion, where the largest construction project in Washington County is taking place, that we have a local group come help us celebrate, that has made a difference in the world,” Communications Director Terri Draper said.

They will arrive with a stage that looks like a large trailer, but when unfolded will be approximately 70 feet wide and 30 feet deep with video and light boards to provide a full concert experience in the DRMC parking lot.

An aerial view of the Dixie Regional Medical Center River Road campus, date and location not specified | Photo courtesy of Dixie Regional Medical Center, St. George News.

The expansion project is part of a greater effort to consolidate all hospital resources at the River Road campus. The project has added over 500,000 square feet to the campus, costing $300 million and bringing the total square footage to approximately 960,000, making this the largest construction project in Washington County history. All clinical services will be moved to the River Road campus upon completion of the expansion project.

The project is being completed in three phases, the first phase consolidated the laboratory and pathology services, expanded the emergency department, observation unit, special recover unit, cardiology services and imaging services. The imaging services expansion included new intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging and a hybrid angiography suite. Hospital staff just performed their first cases using the two new imaging services in the last two weeks.

The second phase included creating more in-patient hospital beds, an in-patient pediatrics floor and nursing unit, and a neuro floor. They also relocated the intensive care unit, in-patient rehabilitation and the clinic and hyperbaric chambers from the 400 East hospital campus. During this phase they also put in space for future growth.

Phase three is currently being finished, though construction has been completed enough so that tours are possible. This phase includes the cancer center, women’s and children’s services (besides in-patient pediatrics, which has already been moved) and the behavioral health unit and access center. The women and newborn center and the cancer center will open in October, and all construction is scheduled to be completed mid-November.

The consolidation of services is necessary for both logistical and collaborative purposes.

First and foremost it’s about our patients, and making sure we’re anticipating their needs now and into the future. And then secondly it brings all of our caregivers together in one location,” Hospital Administrator Mitchell Cloward said.

With St. George currently being the fastest growing metropolitan area in the U.S., it is important for the hospital to grow, and anticipate future growth to keep up with the growing number of people, Cloward said.

Eventually having all health care providers in the same location will help improve collaboration, transportation and communication.

Cloward said touring the expansion can be beneficial to community members for two reasons. First, this is the only time they will have the opportunity to do so as the hospital does not offer tours of facilities to nonpatients to protect patient privacy. Second, most people in the community need health care services at some point.

A family expecting a baby, for example, may want to see the new women’s and newborn center beforehand to become familiar with it.

“This is an opportunity for anyone in the community to come during one of those tour days and walk through an area of the hospital that they will probably be using,” Draper said.

The events taking place in September are both an opportunity for the community to see what is new with the hospital, and to celebrate growing together and the accomplishments and advancements in St. George health care, both now and in the future.

“It’s just going to be a fantastic experience for everybody,” Fielding said.

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1 Comment

  • mittens August 17, 2018 at 6:00 pm

    It’s too bad they are probably paying more for the Piano Guys to perform than they pay a nurse annually. Seems IHC – I mean- Intermountain, cares more about appearances than caring for their staff.

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