Clinic Coming Soon

HonorHealth begins building process for new hospital

By Eric Newman

A group of healthcare executives and local politicians broke ground to symbolize the start of construction on the North Valley’s newest hospital on December 5.

The HonorHealth Sonoran Medical Center, HonorHealth’s sixth area hospital, will be built at Interstate 17 and Dove Valley Road. The facility, on the campus that currently houses the Sonoran Health and Emergency Center, will include an inpatient hospital, ambulatory surgery center and outpatient center in order to provide top-quality healthcare for one of the Valley’s fastest-growing areas.

The new campus will measure three stories and 210,000 square-feet of total space. With 40 new inpatient beds and 24-hour emergency care, the population of north Phoenix and Anthem will finally have the local hospital they have wanted for a long time.

“People that live in the neighborhood have been crying for us to get closer,” says HonorHealth Chief Strategy Officer Richard Silver. “It’s not that our Deer Valley hospital is too far, but they really want their own hospital that isn’t a long drive in traffic and that they can claim as part of the community.”

The HonorHealth Sonoran Medical Center will also offer the immediate area’s only labor-and-delivery unit, something the growing number of young parents and future parents have clamored for in past years.

“That (labor and delivery services) is one of the things that people really wanted here, because it’s a growing area with a lot of families, and we are going to deliver on that. So, really, it’s about mirroring what the community asks for,” says Preston Allred, HonorHealth Director of Strategic Projects-Regional.

One thing the HonorHealth executives were extremely pleased with was the amount of space they have to build upon.

With an entirely barren plot of land to build on, just across the small street from the Sonoran Health and Emergency Center, there are far fewer limitations than other hospital expansions that require far more time and energy to change an already-existing structure.

“Really starting with a fresh canvas is exciting, because most of the time when you’re working in healthcare, you’re adding onto a building, adapting, or whatever else you have to do. This is fresh, and we can look at other designs of successful hospitals and really understand how we can best serve in our new facility,” says Kim Post, HonorHealth Senior Vice President and CEO of Hospitals and Chief Clinical Officer. “Now, we’ve gotten started, and we can’t wait for it to be up and to get to work.”

The hospital is slated to open around September of 2020.