Clinic OK’d:

Facility will offer wide range of services

Maricopa Medical Center receives the go-ahead to build a facility in Peoria.

The board that oversees the taxpayer-funded Maricopa Medical Center on Wednesday approved the construction of a $70 million multispecialty clinic in Peoria.

The Maricopa Integrated Health System district board’s vote allows construction of a 127,000-square-foot clinic at Grand Avenue and Cotton Crossing, several blocks east of Peoria’s municipal center. The facility will house a dental clinic, dialysis clinic, lab services, operating and procedure rooms, pharmacy and urgent care.

The West Valley primary- and specialty-care center, set to open in late 2019 or early 2020, also will include behavioral health services.

As part of the project, the health system’s district board approved a $40.9 million contract with Okland Construction and the $5.6 million purchase of a 20-acre parcel where the clinic will stand. Other costs will include design fees, information technology, medical equipment and furniture, officials said.

The project’s funds come from voter-approved Proposition 480, a $935 million bond authorization to replace Maricopa Medical Center, build a new behavioral-health hospital and upgrade outpatient health facilities and clinics.

The board on Wednesday approved issuance of $75 million in bonds to pay for the Peoria clinic, administrative costs related to Proposition 480 projects and a master plan for the MIHS main campus at Roosevelt and 26th streets in Phoenix.

In 2015, MIHS closed on the sale of $106 million in bonds to fund improvements such as new medical equipment and information technology needed for the health system.

MIHS CEO Steve Purves said the health district identified the site for the Peoria clinic based on the community’s need and the high proportion of people in the area on Medicaid, the government health program that mainly covers low-income and disabled residents.

“We located in an area where we saw a huge need, with respect to vulnerable patients,” he said.

Purves said the safety-net health system is analyzing other areas to determine whether other outpatient centers will be relocated or upgraded with the bond funds.