The design phase of IU Health’s Bloomington Medical Campus is well under way, with groundbreaking projected for the second quarter of 2017 and about three years of construction to follow, IU Health President and CEO Dennis M. Murphy said Friday.

But the impetus behind its construction, planned along 75 acres north of the Indiana 45/46 Bypass next to the Indiana University Golf Course, is less about the buildings themselves and more about evolving models of health care and the opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship they will create, Murphy told attendees of a Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce luncheon held at IU’s Franklin Hall.

At present, traditional care systems tend to be segmented into areas such as primary care, acute care within the hospital environment and post-acute care outside the hospital walls, Murphy said.

Through innovative concepts and design, the new campus — part of a partnership with Indiana University that will further expand its growing health sciences and technology programs — will better coordinate all areas of patient care. To illustrate such need, Murphy shared his own experience with a broken arm and a trip to the emergency room two years ago.

“When I left the hospital, they gave me information on ‘here’s who to call if your arm hurts,'” said Murphy, who became president of IU Health in September 2005 and assumed the CEO title in May. “But I’m a pretty informed guy. And still I found myself asking ‘who’s going to straighten my arm out?’ These are not questions that patients should be asking.”

One of only a few campuses of its type in the nation, it will include a new in-patient hospital and ambulatory center, along with an adjacent medical education building. The latter will allow IU’s health science and academic research units to relocate and expand in collaboration with the hospital. It also will provide opportunities for students to work and study alongside professionals in their respective fields.

“It will be the preeminent environment to practice, work, teach, learn, heal and enhance the quality of life for each person within the campus, community and region,” Murphy said.

By having the hospital and medical education center side-by-side, it is hoped they can attract additional economic growth along Bloomington’s north and east sides, said Kirk White, IU’s assistant vice president for strategic partnerships.

“Hopefully this will influence companies involved in health-related sciences or information technology to also locate there,” White said. “It is an attractive place for collaboration with private industry to invest in activities such as research for clinical trials. It would be a lot like what we have going on in Indianapolis — in some ways even better.”