Sunset Clinic Celebrate Expansion with a Wall-Bashing Event on March 10

 When a family or business outgrows its home, the natural response is to expand. But it’s rare to have the addition exceed the original space. Intermountain Sunset Clinic in St. George is doing just that.

In fact, the planned 10,500-square-foot addition will more than double the building’s footprint bringing total square footage to just under 19,000 and providing ample room for current and future services. Construction will be under the direction of Jacobsen Construction.

A public “wall-bashing” to celebrate the Sunset expansion is planned for 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, March 10. It will include a brief ceremony involving sledgehammers and a backhoe, and a light breakfast.

“Our growth in that part of Washington County, including Santa Clara, Ivins, and western St. George, has simply beaten all our expectations,” said Shawn Kolu, director of Intermountain Medical Group’s Southwest Region.

Intermountain first opened the Sunset Clinic and InstaCare in August of 2007. The location has been home to a very successful family practice clinic and “one of the busiest-per-doctor InstaCare facilities in the entire Intermountain system,” said Kolu.

Besides expanding the space for current services, the addition will also include room for physical therapy and rehabilitation, a new service at the Sunset location. The unit will function as a satellite of the comprehensive rehab center located at the new Dixie Regional Health & Performance Center just east of the hospital’s River Road campus. 

“The idea is to take the services to the patients rather than always having them come to a central location,” explained Dr. Marty Nygaard, medical director for Intermountain Medical Group’s Southwest Region.

In addition, space will now be available to add six new physicians and expand primary care services beyond family practice medicine to include both pediatricians and internists.

“Depending on demand, we’ll add those physicians one or two at a time over the next five or six years,” said Kolu.

Dr. Nygaard anticipates that the first pediatrician will arrive at the Sunset location as soon as the expansion is completed late this fall. “Some people really like having one doctor for the entire family, but others prefer to see a physician that specializes in working with a specific age group. Expansion of our Sunset location will allow us to make both options available to our patients.”

Currently the family practice clinic is home to Dr. William Goodger, Dr. Seth Spanos, and nurse practitioner Kristine Carter. Family medicine providers care for the general medical, psychological, and developmental needs of the entire family. They provide a broad spectrum of care for routine and chronic medical problems, and diagnosis and treatment of new medical problems.

Intermountain InstaCare clinics offer easy access to urgent care for minor injuries and illnesses. Licensed physicians and specialized staff can handle minor emergencies from sore throats and illnesses to cuts or broken bones needing x-rays. Sunset InstaCare providers include Dr. Dennis Moore and Dr. Dan Davie.

Both the Family Practice Clinic and the InstaCare will remain open throughout construction.