Maricopa Integrated Health System announced it is acquiring the Maryvale hospital and reopening its Emergency Department to provide the local community access to board certified emergency medicine physicians 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

MIHS plans to reopen the facility as a behavioral health hospital with up to 203 beds to address unmet needs for mental health services in the West Valley. The new ED and behavioral health hospital are expected to open in early 2019.

Before its closing in December, the Maryvale hospital’s Emergency Department had more than 40,000 visits annually.

The Maricopa County Special Health Care District Board of Directors voted unanimously today (February 28) to buy the hospital.

“MIHS offers extensive experience in emergency medicine and behavioral health,” said Steve Purves, President and CEO. “This acquisition will meet two very critical community health needs – 24 hour access to full service emergency care for the residents of Maryvale and increased access to behavioral health services for the entire community.”

“We are very happy with the positive collaboration with Abrazo Community Health to ensure that the Maryvale community continues to have access to top quality health care,” Purves said.

“We are excited to expand our services in Maryvale and build on its already strong sense of community,” said Susan Gerard, Chairman of the Maricopa County Special Health Care District Board of Directors. “As we have proven throughout our more than 140 year history in Maricopa County, we are very much committed to being part of every community that we serve.”

Health Care District Board Director Mary Rose Wilcox added, ““When Maryvale hospital closed, the West Valley was very concerned, particularly for emergency care. MIHS has stepped up and we will be providing the emergency care the West Valley needs and deserves.”

The new ED and Behavioral Health Services will be part of MIHS’s coordinated care system, providing Maryvale residents with linkages to MIHS’s comprehensive medical, surgical, and ambulatory services. This includes Arizona’s only Trauma Center verified by the American College of Surgeons to treat adults and children and the nationally recognized Arizona Burn Center located at its teaching hospital in Phoenix. 

Opening a behavioral health facility in the West Valley will allow individuals receiving treatment to be closer to their families and homes. Currently, if a person who lives in the West Valley and may need treatment, the closest location to receive that service is at MIHS’s Desert Vista Behavioral Health Center in Mesa or MIHS’s main campus at 24th Street and Roosevelt. This creates a real hardship on the ability of family members who live in the West Valley to visit and participate in their loved one’s recovery and care.

Maricopa County voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 480 in 2014 to meet healthcare needs throughout Maricopa County, including behavioral health, and to transform our community’s public teaching hospital and safety net system of care. At the time, MIHS thanked the voters for their confidence and pledged to use the money as wisely as possible.

This is another realization of this promise. The Maryvale hospital’s total acquisition and renovation cost of roughly  $59 million is dramatically less than the cost of building a new behavioral health hospital and it would make expanded capacity available much sooner.  

“This is a more efficient way to utilize the funding under Proposition 480 while meeting the voters’ clear desire to improve and increase access to health care for all members of our community,” Mr. Purves said.

The new behavioral health hospital will be part of MIHS’s network of behavioral health facilities at the main campus at 2601 E. Roosevelt Street and MIHS’s Desert Vista Behavioral Health Center in Mesa. Combined, those facilities currently have 241 licensed adult and adolescent inpatient beds.

MIHS is known for its leadership in behavioral healthcare and has been providing behavioral health services to our community since the 1960s.