MountainStar Healthcare Opens First Emergency Center in Syracuse

SYRACUSE, Utah — Ashley Alder didn’t expect a fun evening ride around her neighborhood on an electric scooter to end the way it did Monday.

“I was on the back of this electric scooter with my 12-year-old son on the front,” Alder said. “We went off the sidewalk and had an accident.”

Alder, who has lived in Syracuse for 10 years, said his son was not injured, but his shoulder took the brunt of their fall.

“The next day I went to work and my shoulder just got worse,” she added.

After visiting a few emergency rooms in the area that she said didn’t accept her insurance, Alder said, “I remembered the new emergency room in Syracuse that had just opened and I stopped in and they immediately gave me X-rays.”

On Thursday, MountainStar Healthcare publicly celebrated the opening of the Syracuse Emergency Center with a ribbon cutting and community event.

“This is a pivotal and exciting time to live and work in Syracuse,” Mayor Dave Maughan said from the podium. “The decisions we make today about our city will impact generations to come, and bringing services like this closer to home is absolutely the right decision.”

The emergency department was built to accommodate population growth in parts of western Davis and Weber counties, including in and around Syracuse, West Point, Clearfield, Clinton and Roy.

Former Syracuse City Councilwoman Lisa Bingham says the project has been in the works for two years.

“We’re experiencing tremendous growth in the city, and because of that tremendous growth, we have tremendous needs,” Bingham said.

According to Bingham, the city’s population is currently 30,000 to 35,000, but it is expected to reach 60,000 when Syracuse is fully built out.

“When the hospital came and said they were ready to build here, we were thrilled because we knew we needed another emergency response center and we knew this was the perfect location for it,” she added.

The Syracuse Emergency Center, a freestanding emergency room (FSER), provides comprehensive emergency services in a hospital setting.

It is fully equipped and staffed 24/7 by experienced, board-certified physicians from Ogden Regional Medical Center.

The facility includes 11 patient exam rooms and full laboratory and imaging services, including CT scans, X-rays and ultrasounds.

“Acute injuries, trauma, cardiac issues like heart attacks or cardiac arrhythmias, strokes, you know, situations where time is of the essence for care. It’s very important to have that access,” said Dr. Bo Poulson, an emergency physician and medical director at Ogden Regional Medical Center. “(The FSER) is an emergency access point where patients can come in and get stabilization of emergency care and ultimately be treated and sent home, or we’ll treat them and get them admitted to the appropriate facility.”

If a patient’s medical needs require it, once stabilized, they may be transported to a full-service hospital to obtain the subspecialty and definitive care they need.

Dr Poulson believes that a facility like this should reassure parents and families.

“I think for a growing community, having access to health care is a real peace of mind for you and your family, knowing that if day-to-day life is going against you, you have the ability to go somewhere and get the treatment you need,” he said.

Syracuse Fire Department Battalion Chief Corey Bybee says minutes and seconds count in a rescue situation.

“The transportation time to our nearest facility, depending on where we are in the city, can be up to ten minutes. And now with this facility, that time can be reduced by two to five minutes, depending on where we are,” said Battalion Chief Bybee.

Although Alder’s injury was not serious this time, she said, “It’s nice to have (an emergency room) nearby that can give you peace of mind.”

The new emergency center is located at 323 S 2000 W, Syracuse, UT 84075.

For more information about the project, visit their website here or contact the facility directly by calling (385) 383-2100.