Big-D Construction and Intermountain Healthcare completed the new $25 million Bear River Valley Hospital with the official grand opening in Tremonton, Utah. The 44,319-square-foot, 16-bed hospital features state-of-the-art technology and services and is designed to grow in size to meet the healthcare needs of the community for the next 50 years. Services provided include an emergency department, in-patient care unit, laboratory, physical therapy department, radiology/imaging department, surgical services, women and newborn services and WorkMed occupational health services. In addition, the adjoining Bear River Clinic houses eight physician offices. The providers, currently all part of the Intermountain Medical Group, specialize in family medicine and general surgery.

Intermountain Healthcare announced that William H. Nelson will retire in December after nine years as president and CEO, turning leadership over to Dr. Charles Sorenson. Nelson is a somewhat accidental health-system executive.

Intermountain Healthcare plans to reduce staff at its former flagship medical center, LDS Hospital, by 150 positions, after patient volumes failed to live up to the expectations projected when Intermountain reduced the hospital's size last fall and opened a new flagship hospital in Murray. The staff will be reduced from 1,570 full-time equivalent positions to 1,420 by Sept. 1. The aim is to achieve the reductions through attrition and reassigning employees to other Intermountain Healthcare facilities.