Last fall, West Des Moines made a huge leap – from having no community hospital to a choice of two state-of-the-art hospitals. Though the hospitals may be taking longer than expected to operate at full capacity, administrators say patients and staff are highly satisfied with the meticulously planned facilities.

Mercy Medical Center – West Lakes opened Sept. 8, followed six weeks later by Methodist West Hospital, which began taking patients on Oct. 26.

Since its opening, Mercy West Lakes has admitted more than 2,300 patients, and handled more than 16,800 outpatient and 8,300 emergency department visits.

Though it hasn’t been open as long, Methodist West has recorded slightly more admissions (just over 2,500), but fewer emergency department visits (about 6,500). Its outpatient visits were about half the number recorded by Mercy West Lakes, however. (see chart)

In comparison with these relatively small community hospitals, Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines handles about 35,000 admissions annually, and Iowa Methodist Medical Center admits about 23,000 patients annually.

Sheryl Barnes, associate administrator of Mercy West Lakes, said the new hospital is operating at between 30 and 40 percent of its present operating capacity. Mercy officials had hoped it would have reached the 60 to 70 percent range by this time, she said.

“But I think starting out slower gave us time to get used to our processes,” Barnes said. “Everything is working very well, and I think volumes will pick up.” Built as a replacement for Mercy Capitol hospital on Des Moines’ East Side, West Lakes is licensed by the state to add as many as 64 additional patient rooms by finishing its now-unoccupied sixth and seventh floors. It’s expected to eventually handle three times more daily volume than Mercy Capitol did.

Chris Blair, chief clinical officer at Methodist West, said her hospital has seen “steady growth,” but declined to say whether it’s hitting anticipated usage levels.

“We expected steady growth, and that’s what we’re seeing,” she said. Additionally, “we are seeing more and more physician interest and surgeons wanting to bring their patients out here and more requests for blocked time in the surgical suites.”

Iowa’s dominant health insurance company, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, had objected to building two hospitals in West Des Moines, saying it would result in a duplication of services that would lead to higher health-care costs.

Prior to construction beginning on either hospital, Mercy and Iowa Health reached separate agreements with Wellmark. Both health roups agreed to open the new hospitals with fewer inpatient beds – 82 at West Lakes and 83 at Methodist West – and to accept lower insurance reimbursements from Wellmark for 10 years.

In exchange, Wellmark agreed to drop lawsuits seeking to prevent the facilities from being built.

A spokesman for Wellmark declined to comment on the hospitals’ utilization numbers.

Methodist West, in addition to operating as a community hospital, was designed to serve as an “orthopedic center of excellence” for Iowa Health – Des Moines, and that niche has had a strong start, Blair said.

“Our orthopedic volume is doing great,” she said. “We’ve done 90 total joint replacement cases so far,” which puts the hospital on track to lead the state in total joint replacements if that pace continues, she said.

Earlier this month, Iowa Health moved its orthopedic spine surgeons from Iowa Methodist Medical Center to Methodist West, and began performing spinal surgeries at the new hospital, Blair said. Since Jan. 1, the hospital has handled nearly 800 joint cases and just over 900 orthopedic cases.

The volume of outpatient procedures has been a strength at Mercy West Lakes, Barnes said. The new hospital’s outpatient visit numbers already exceed those of Mercy Capitol before it was closed, she said.

Both administrators said they’re receiving a lot of positive feedback from their staffs and patients.

“We’ve heard from a lot from patients about the ease of getting in and out for an outpatient procedure,” Blair said. “There are only a few steps from registration to their appointments. We’re also getting good feedback from them about how kind and compassionate our staff are.”

Barnes said: “I think our patient satisfaction survey scores are coming back very positive as well. There are many, many positive comments about the staff, in addition to the facility.”