Construction contines as $40 million new San Juan Health Hospital rises in Monticello

by David Boyle
News Director
Construction is underway in Monticello for the new San Juan Health hospital. The $40 million project includes upgrades and new amenities for patients with a completion date at the end of 2026.
San Juan Health Chief Executive Officer Clayton Holt speaking with the Red Rock 92.7 Morning Show on August 1st shared that they’re excited to be building the new hospital.
“The existing hospital’s original construction began I believe in 1958. So as near as we can tell, this hospital that we have that served us very well is the oldest functioning hospital in the state of Utah. With that, old buildings have some significant problems and we took a pretty careful look at the existing building to see if there was something we could do to fix it up, to renovate it, to make it work for another 50 or 60 years. We really came to the conclusion that it just wasn’t possible to make that happen. So after the assessment we finally decided that the best approach would be to completely replace the existing building due to its age and our inability to to bring it up to current codes.”
Holt shared the construction timeline for the entire project is about 20 months with excavation of the site starting last fall and completion of the building at the end of 2026.
“It’s going to take some time to complete, get everything up and running, move from the old building to the new building and that. So we don’t know for sure exactly when we’ll be looking to move in, but somewhere in that time frame. November/December of 2026 is when we plan to occupy the new building and get things going there.”
Holt shared they started footers and foundations for the project in April. With footers, underground plumbing and electrical complete as well as the floor slab in the project is starting structural steel and steel stud framing right now with an expectation to have the roof on the building and then start exterior work including sheeting and the roof membrane to start likely in mid-September.
Building a new hospital offers San Juan Health an opportunity for increased efficiencies and new offerings in the new building.
Holt laid out some of the benefits including efficient heating and cooling systems.
“We’re really excited to bring our MRI in the building. We have a mobile trailer that we’re using right now. We’ve used it for several years, so we’re very happy to have robust services there. We’re able to include a new infusion center to provide chemotherapy services to those patients that need those services on site. We’re very happy to have two full surgical suites in this building that would allow us to move back and forth between surgery rooms and do a lot more surgery as we turn rooms over.”
Holt added the new building will also meet numerous regulations and standards for new hospitals.
San Juan Health will hold on to some existing buildings on their campus. The clinic and administrative buildings were built about 15 years ago and will remain. A surgical suite was also added to the hospital about 15 years ago as well, with Holt sharing they plan to repurpose that building for a modest cost with the rest of the old hospital becoming a parking area.
With a price tag of $40 million, the new hospital received some grant and loan aids from entities in the state.
Holt shared that price tag includes the design and construction of the building as well as furnishing the building and some expensive medical equipment.
In their latest legislative session the state legislature provided a funding package of around $30 million including a loan and a grant. San Juan Health also received a $5 million low interest loan from the Community Impact Board to help fund the design of the building as well as imaging equipment in the building. San Juan Health has also saved up money in reserve funds to put towards the project to fill in remaining gaps.
The new hospital campus is not only planned to serve the community for the next few decades but beyond that for the next 50 to 100 years.
“We did acquire 15 acres of property there and we tried to do that with the mindset that we could add additional buildings around the hospital. When the old hospital is demolished, that will create some empty space as well. If we need to add more buildings we can do that in the future and so we will be able to retain that campus feel as needed and we should have plenty of space for any building of any foreseeable need in the next 50 years.”
The existing hospital is about 25,000 square feet with the new building to be built at 48,000 square feet. That additional size will include new assets including MRI, infusion space and other spaces but Holt also noted that new hospital standards simply require more space in certain areas to meet standards.
Holt reports that San Juan Health staff is excited for the new building.
“Our goal is to provide the safest and most comfortable environment we can for our patients and they are really happy about that to be able to do their job. So, they are elated to be able to have a new place to provide those services.”
Among the new services include the infusion room, which Holt says is part of San Juan Health’s effort to offer more specialty services to the community without having to pay travel expenses to receive needed services.
“We partner with Intermountain Health and the oncologist sees patients remotely and provides the care plan as far as the chemotherapy that they need to receive and then we administer that treatment here which allows people to stay home and not have to travel a lot to receive those treatments which has been a significant benefit for those patients. One of the things we wanted to incorporate into this building is a space that was dedicated for that purpose that provided an environment that was peaceful, comfortable, the best environment we could for those patients. So we put a special room on the back side of the building that actually looks at the mountain and the windmills with very large windows in that room that gives people the best experience possible as they’re receiving that treatment.”
Holt added San Juan Health is appreciative of the support received from the communities as they look to serve the community.
“We are excited about the ability to provide the very best system of health care, the very best services we can. Our goal is that that people that live in our communities can grow old here, that they don’t have to leave their community to receive health care, that they can grow here, do it comfortably, and that as as new businesses come here, that they can establish business here and provide for their employees here and we want to be that for our communities so that they can rely on on the health care that that’s available and it’s as good as they can get anywhere.”