Canyon Vista Medical Center now open. Old hospital closes

Sierra Vista Herald ^ | Bill Hess

[SandRat]

SIERRA VISTA — At 6 a.m. today Canyon Vista Medical Center was declared officially open by its CEO, Dr. Dean French.

The first of 51 patients, 8-day-old Edgar Zuriel Tebaqui Sallard whose mother Judith lives in Douglas, arrived from the Sierra Vista Regional Health Center at 6:05 a.m. The last patient transported was Richard Holt, who left SVHRC at 10:14 a.m. and a minute later French declared the half century-old facility closed.

Outside the American flag was symbolically lowered and folded, as workers covered signs of the old hospital. Canyon Vista Medical Center came into being when an agreement by the then SVHRC Board of Trustees and the Tennessee-based RegionalCare Hospital Partners was signed in 2013 to build the new medical center to replace the older landlocked health center. See Friday’s Herald/Review for more news about the closing of SVHRC and the opening of the new four-story CVMC.

[HiJinx]

My son was on the switchboard yesterday during the move. He received 4 separate calls.

Caller: “Ummm...it looks like the hospital is closed. Is it? How do I get seen, now?”

S/B: “April Fools! Come in by way of the basement!” Okay, that’s what he thought, not what he said. “Yes, today is the day we closed the old hospital and opened the new one. You need to drive out past the Target and Fry’s; we’re on the right side of the highway. 4 stories tall. Can’t miss it!”

Caller: “New hospital? When’d that happen?”