A topping out event was held on June 6 when the last beam of the steel structure was mounted for a new medical office building on the St. Luke’s Magic Valley main campus.

The two-story 57,640-square-foot medical office building will be located near the east end of St. Luke’s 40-acre Twin Falls property. The cost for the construction, fixtures and equipment is approximately $27.2 million.

The new medical office building will house St. Luke’s outpatient clinics and services, including Internal Medicine, Occupational Medicine, Endocrinology and Diabetes Management, Otolaryngology (ENT), Rehab Services, Pain Medicine, an outpatient laboratory draw station and outpatient imaging services.

Occupational Medicine will be located on the first floor with its own entrance.

“Occupational Medicine is the medical specialty devoted to workers and their health,” said Dr. Brian Johns, medical director for St. Luke’s Occupational Health and Well Being. “In our clinic, most commonly we see injured workers. It’s almost like an urgent care, so if someone is injured at work, they can for the most part just walk right in. Then we direct treatments and see these patients in follow-up until they get better. We also see patients who need medical surveillance. I think an example that people would probably be most familiar with is commercial driver’s medical exams.”

Dr. Johns started working at St. Luke’s in 2008. Since both of his parents grew up in Twin Falls, he would come to visit his grandparents periodically. Subsequently, Dr. Johns has witnessed a lot of changes in the community.

“Twin Falls has grown a lot, and our clinic has grown along with it,” said Dr. Johns.

Population growth is one of the reasons that this new medical office building is necessary.

“This project is really part of our regional medical staff development plan, which is a five-year plan to evaluate community growth,” said Debbie Kytle, St. Luke’s Magic Valley administrator of physician services. “We are looking at the number of providers and the number of retirements to see where we need to expand our services in order to meet the needs of the region. In order to improve the health of people in the region, we need to improve their access to care, which requires the right number of providers and clinics.”

Right now, these services are in different places throughout Twin Falls. This new building will allow St. Luke’s to expand capacity; clinics being vacated will free up space for other uses.

A tentative date for opening is set for February 2018. Once completed, the building will be open Monday through Friday.