Northern Arizona Healthcare is committed to providing hospital and ambulatory health care services, including a Level I Trauma Center, to the vast region of northern Arizona, spreading from north of Phoenix to Utah and between the state borders with California and New Mexico. An important element of our responsibility as a nonprofit health care organization is reinvesting in the services we provide to the region.
Our current Flagstaff Medical Center is at capacity every day for adult inpatients. This causes delays as patients wait in the Emergency Department for an inpatient bed to become available and it reduces access to care for our entire region.
As the region grows and health care delivery models change, we know we will continue to experience an increase in demand for our services, just as we have seen the past several years. To plan for that increased demand, NAH has been diligently exploring options for constructing a new, modern hospital in the Flagstaff area to serve the region for the next 50 years.
New hospital feasibility analysis continues
The Northern Arizona Healthcare (NAH) Board of Directors met in early 2026 and affirmed northern Arizona needs a new hospital to adequately care for the region’s growing health care needs. The Board also determined that, at this time, we cannot announce a site for a new hospital and we cannot announce a timeline due to impactful external barriers we must acknowledge.
In the coming years, hospital systems across the United States will face numerous financial challenges that make it imprudent to commit to a large new investment at this time.
There are and have been general challenges and pressures in recent years from declining reimbursement rates from insurers, both public and private. However, one particularly impactful new factor is the Medicaid cuts that were passed in 2025, according to which NAH is projected to lose $50 million annually in reimbursement for caring for our community. Those cuts are scheduled to take effect in 2027 and compound over the following years, ultimately amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
These reductions to what insurance companies and governments pay NAH for the care we provide are happening even as the cost to provide that care rises. The cost of care continues to grow annually due to increased prices of supplies, medical equipment, and pharmaceuticals, combined with wage and benefits increases. As the cost to staff and equip our hospitals and clinics rises, we are and will continue to be reimbursed less over time for the care we provide.
Those current and forthcoming financial considerations must be weighed simultaneously against the known and well-understood community need for more adult inpatient beds, space for modern medical technology, increased emergency department capacity, and design to efficiently accommodate all support services required to provide safe, high quality, patient-centered care.
The responsible step the NAH Board and leadership have jointly decided to take is to continue to assess the overall impact of these and other proposed financial changes before committing to a path forward. Our 2030 Strategic Plan identified both Growing Our Reach (including the construction of a modern regional referral facility), which is focused on meeting community need and providing access to health care services, and Achieving Financial and Organizational Stability as two of NAH’s four strategic imperatives. The Board and leadership are continuing to assess how to balance those priorities to ensure we can keep our promise to provide care for the entire region before, during, and after the construction and opening of a new facility
Hospital site updates
NAH CEO Dave Cheney told the community in October 2025 that NAH was investigating five potential sites for a new hospital to serve the region. The NAH Board of Directors decided in early 2026 to stop due diligence on three sites NAH does not own in light of the timeline uncertainties, and their lack of suitability for a future hospital. NAH remains bound by non-disclosure agreements and cannot disclose the location of or identity of the owners of those three sites.
NAH continues to own the Flagstaff Medical Center property and acreage adjacent to Ft. Tuthill County Park.
At the time that any new hospital construction takes place, the project will be for a hospital only. During the 2023 Flagstaff referendum on rezoning the NAH-owned land for a hospital near Ft. Tuthill, NAH leadership heard opposition to the health village concept associated with a new hospital. Therefore, as we research possible locations for a new hospital, we are no longer pursuing additional development near the hospital, but rather seeking only to construct a modern hospital specifically.
Outpatient services expanding
As noted above, during the 2023 Flagstaff referendum on rezoning the NAH-owned land near Ft. Tuthill for a hospital, NAH leadership heard from residents that they did not want to see the health village concept associated with a new hospital. As a direct result of that feedback, we have begun to locate some services at our Central Flagstaff health clinic, at 1895 N. Jasper Dr. This includes our vascular and cardiothoracic surgery clinic, Primary Care, Urgent Care, Sleep Clinic.
Additionally, in 2024 we began remodeling and expanding an outpatient surgery center at 1485 N. Turquoise Drive. Orthopedic surgeries are still scheduled at the Summit Center during construction. When the Summit Center fully reopens in mid-2026, it will house an array of services:
- This will be the new home for NAH’s 27,000 square-foot outpatient surgery center with six operating rooms, post-operative recovery space and two pain procedure rooms.
- The remodeled and expanded surgery center will also include a 4,700 square-foot hyperbaric wound clinic to house two hyperbaric wound chambers, six exam rooms and will include room to expand for future needs.
- A 14,800 square-foot orthopedic and neurosurgery clinic will also be in this location, including x-ray facilities, exam rooms and procedure rooms.
- A 5,200 square-foot outpatient EntireCare Sports & Rehab Medicine physical therapy clinic.
FMC reuse options
During the 2023 Flagstaff referendum on rezoning the NAH-owned land near Ft. Tuthill for a hospital, NAH leadership also heard that one of the reasons some people objected to moving the hospital was that there wasn’t a plan for reusing the current FMC land after the hospital moved.
As a response to that feedback, NAH met with colleagues and the community in several meetings throughout October 2025 to gather input on what individuals would like to see at the FMC property if NAH moves to another hospital site in the future.
Here is a summary of what attendees shared with us in a total of six meetings (two meetings for NAH colleagues, two meetings for public, one meeting each for NAH Patient and Family Advisory Council and NAH Flagstaff Community Advisory Council).
Proposed/suggested uses for FMC space if NAH moves the hospital:*
| General ideas | Medical/clinical ideas | Education ideas |
| Open space/public park, tie-in with Buffalo Park | Centralize other NAH clinical services | Teaching/medical training (partner with CCC, NAU, ASU) |
| Expand roads for east-west and downtown traffic support | Rent space to other medical providers | Partner with NAU for various education facilities |
| Housing – general | Alcohol/drug rehabilitation clinic or associated services | Research facility (possibly in conjunction with NAU and/or ASU) |
| Housing – for hospital staff and patient support, expand Taylor House | Skilled nursing facility | Research & industrial park |
| Housing – senior & transitional | Multi-level senior care combined with senior housing | Technical job training |
| Housing – affordable, senior focused | Urgent Care | |
| Housing – medium density | Overflow space for acute emergency care needs in future pandemic or other medical surge situation | |
| Housing – affordable | Outpatient surgery to support hospital capacity needs | |
| Community use: meeting space or community kitchen rental | Mental health services | |
| Food service option | Prioritize health care services | |
| Park-and-ride (keep parking garage); parking covered with solar panels | Cancer center | |
| Child care | Tunnel under Beaver Street for traffic to connect East and West FMC for health care use | |
| Gym/pool facilities for public use | Veterans care facility | |
| Mixed use or split property into public park and commercial development | Ancillary medical services to support post-hospital recovery and transitional care | |
| Sell to reinvest in new hospital | Preventive services | |
| No plan now – determine based on community needs in 10 years | Federal Indian Health Center | |
| Purchase NorthStar and Basha’s and expand | Expand EntireCare physical therapy offerings | |
| Performing arts space | Care coordination services | |
| Wildlife crossing/movement support | ||
| Donate land to Navajo or Hopi tribal use | ||
| High-altitude sports training facilities | ||
| Youth community center |
* Most education ideas, health care ideas, and housing ideas were mentioned by multiple people in each of our six meetings
Input on what NOT to do with FMC space if NAH moves the hospital – do not build: housing, bars, hotel, another hospital.
During the conversations, we also heard several ideas for the area commonly called Soggy Bottom, south of Forest between San Francisco and Turquoise. This area is a federally-designated flood plain, much of which is not feasible for construction based on federal requirements for building in a designated flood plain. Ideas for that site were: snow play area, solar and wind power, keep as open space.
We also heard the following suggestions for any future uses: prioritize green energy in construction, prioritize native vegetation.