The planned SimET Center at Banner Corporate Center -- Mesa will encompass 55,000 square feet and have 55 beds, two operating rooms and a complete Emergency department. It will be one of the largest centers of its kind in the country and will elevate medical education efforts in Arizona to new levels.

It is the cornerstone of a $133 million project to transform the campus of the former Banner Mesa Medical Center, near downtown Mesa, into an office and educational complex for Banner Health.

This new SimET center, expected to open in late spring, essentially creates a simulated hospital environment that is larger than most medical facilities in rural communities in Arizona.

Our new facility will have the capacity to train upwards of 1,875 nurses beginning in late 2009, tripling the current number of nursing candidates being trained via simulation at Banner annually.