Byline: Michael Perrault News Staff Writer
From his office inside the nine-story, World War II-era Fitzsimons Hospital building in Aurora, University of Colorado Hospital President Dennis Brimhall has a bird's-eye view of the most ambitious and expensive health care construction project in Colorado history.
Several miles to the northwest, Centura Health Chief Executive Officer Joseph Swedish weighs expansion options for Louisville's Avista Adventist Hospital, which was built a decade ago in a grazing pasture for cattle and has now has reached patient capacity.
In Castle Rock, Roger Zumwalt chairs a discussion with Castle Rock Medical Group board members as they mull one of two possible sites for a new 50-bed, acute-care hospital.
It's been more than a decade without a single major hospital project in the metro area. Now, hospital systems are:
* Lining up finances and assessing the need to build three new facilities in Douglas County.
* Tackling nearly a dozen hospital expansion projects from Thornton and Westminster to Littleton and Louisville; and
* Adding new outpatient facilities, other medical-related offices and shoring up high-tech medical equipment arsenals.
All this activity comes despite the industry's general need to tighten purse strings because of low Medicare reimbursement rates. But hospital system executives say they must position themselves to serve the burgeoning population in the suburbs and improve services for two demographic segments - an aging population and young couples who need obstetrics services.
When Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority officials and others gather this week at a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open the Anschutz Centers for Advanced Medicine, the event will mark more than just completion of the first key component of the massive project.
It represents the culmination of more than six years of planning and construction to create a from-the-ground-up campus that is designed to provide synergies that foster world-renowned medical advances.
When built out over the next decade on 217 acres at the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Aurora, the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center campus will include a 300-bed hospital, a 485,000-square-foot outpatient and cancer pavilion, an eye institute and extensive medical research and education space.
On 160 adjacent acres, construction continues on the Colorado Bioscience Park Aurora, where biotech researchers already have begun drug discovery, bioengineering, pre-clinical studies and development of medical devices.
The two projects form a sprawling ``health sciences city'' at Colfax Avenue and Ursula Street. One day, the $5 billion development will include 12 million square feet of buildings, hotels and a light-rail station, and will be home to 14,000 health care professionals, scientists, teachers, administrators and students.
``Having new buildings and plenty of space is wonderful, but there is something more important going on here,'' said Brimhall, president of the University of Colorado Hospital. Brimhall has watched the site blossom from the planning stages to blueprints to bricks and mortar.
``What we have is this unique opportunity to reinvent and redesign how we deliver health care, do research and train health care professionals,'' he said.
Serving the south side
Douglas County's reputation as one of the fastest-growing communities in the nation hasn't given it the clout to warrant a full-service hospital in the affluent county.
But that's about to change.
Three hospital projects are being mulled by Centura Health, HealthOne and Denver-based Castle Rock Medical Group to serve the county's booming population, which has grown from about 61,000 to more than 152,000 over the past decade, according to the Castle Rock Economic Development Council.
In Castle Rock, a group of physicians formed the Castle Rock Medical Group to explore the possibility of building a 50-bed hospital that eventually could be expanded to 100 beds and serve more than 45,000 residents in and around the growing city.
``We have a lot of community support in Castle Rock for construction of an acute-care, general hospital there,'' said Roger Zumwalt, chairman of the Castle Rock Medical Group's six-member board of directors. ``We're putting together a financing plan. We think it will cost close to $200 a square foot to construct - about $20 million to $25 million. And we have an agreement with a well-known contractor in the Castle Rock area who has some property that he'd like to develop.''
Among locations being considered are sites near the Founders Village or Plum Creek residential developments, Zumwalt said. Emergency room, obstetrics and surgery facilities are planned, along with outpatient services.
About 20 minutes to the north, near Park Meadows Mall, the five-hospital joint venture between HCA-The Healthcare Co. and the former HealthOne Foundation is planning a 125-bed hospital with an emergency room and trauma facilities, said Maureen Tarrant, HealthOne's vice president for strategic and administrative services.
The hospital will be built on a 42.5-acre parcel that is a portion of Rampart Range - a 3,514-acre tract south of Interstate 25 and Lincoln Avenue. HealthOne will spend more than $100 million to build the hospital, medical office buildings and supply the facility with high-tech medical equipment.
Despite Lone Tree Town Council's approval of preliminary plans, two lawsuits seek to nullify this year's annexation of Rampart Range. Douglas County wants to stop development of the 6-square-mile tract, and officials have filed a lawsuit to protect the county's legal rights over $831,000 in reimbursement for road improvements to Lincoln Avenue.
HealthOne expects to close on the land purchase in March 2001, Tarrant said, followed by construction and a tentative June 2003 opening.
The Centura Health hospital system, which is sponsored by PorterCare Adventist Health System and Catholic Health Initiatives, is assessing construction of a new hospital in Parker or another city in Douglas County, as well.
``We believe that south Denver is an extremely important service area for us to establish a presence,'' Swedish said. ``The need that has been expressed by community leadership has been conveyed to us.''
Centura - which turned a $56 million profit for the fiscal year ended June 30, a significant improvement over the $33.1 million loss posted a year earlier - plans to invest more than $134 million over the next three years to improve its 17 hospitals across the state.
`City' for healthsciences
Nearly six years ago, when CU Health Sciences Center executives began considering long-term expansion plans at the 46-acre campus at East Ninth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, they quickly realized that they couldn't accomplish their mission with existing facilities, Brimhall said.
So when the Army opted to close Fitzsimons, they aggressively pursued the expansive site as a campus, where the project could be built from the ground up. It was the ideal scenario, said Dr. James H. Shore, chancellor of the health sciences center.
``World-renowned medical advances don't happen in a vacuum,'' Shore said. ``They typically take place in an academic health services center where education, research and patient care provide a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary laboratory for discovery.''
As executives planned new campus construction and the 10-year phased-in move to Aurora, CU Health Sciences Center executives tapped some unusual resources. Strategies have included sending a team of doctors, executives and others to explore how the Disney Institute tackles key customer service issues.
``As we were moving out to Fitzsimons, we wanted to evaluate not only our buildings out there, but our culture and how we treat and work with patients,'' said Ruiz, vice president of operations for center.
Robert Harris, vice president of ambulatory care services, traveled to Disney World in Orlando, Fla. to learn customer service strategies that are specifically designed for health care organizations.
``They've (Disney) been doing this about 18 years or so, and they also explained how they take care of the logistics and operational type issues,'' Harris said.
On Thursday, the University of Colorado Hospital announced that it would begin planning for an accelerated move to the new campus at Fitzsimons, a move that could cut up to $50 million in construction costs. Although the original master plan called for the hospital to be completed in about 2010, a new timeline calls for the initial phase of the inpatient pavilion to be completed within two years, if approved by the hospital board.
``In the past, hospitals tacked ambulatory care wings on to the main inpatient buildings,'' Brimhall said. ``We're reversing that - building the outpatient services area first and fitting the inpatient services around it.''
The health sciences center will more than double its research capabilities, from 750,000 square feet to 1.8 million square feet. ``It will be a national model for research and development,'' Shore said.
This week, the center's outpatient and cancer facilities will open, both of which are part of the Anschutz Centers for Advanced Medicine. The $119 million, 476,000-square-foot outpatient pavilion and the $29 million, 106,000-square-foot cancer pavilion were built in two years, with the 46,000-square-foot, $12 million Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Institute to follow.
The Anschutz Outpatient Pavilion will offer a range of dental, medical, nursing and pharmacy services from primary and specialty ambulatory care to outpatient ambulatory surgery and recovery. The Anschutz Cancer Pavilion will provide ambulatory care for all types of cancers, and will house cancer prevention and early detection programs.
The Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Institute will offer tertiary and ambulatory patient care, education and research for the Rocky Mountain region and house the Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank.
Other components include the Ben Nighthorse Campbell American Indian / Alaska Native and TeleHealth / TeleEducation facility, and extensive research and education complexes for medicine, nursing, pharmacy and dentistry students.
Expansion options eyed
As Level 3 Communications and other growing high-tech businesses near Louisville continue to draw employees and fuel population growth, that has prompted Centura to begin assessing ways to expand its 58-bed acute-care Avista Adventist Hospital.
``Avista is now at the point of capacity,'' Swedish said. ``Now we're examining the potential to add services and beds to that campus.''
That scenario is being played out across the Front Range, from Westminster and Thornton to Aurora and Littleton.
Centura Health is investing more than $38 million at 11-year-old Littleton Adventist Hospital over the next two years as it adds 36 beds and more than 100,000 square feet to the existing 210,000-square-foot hospital. Of increasing concern is capacity of the obstetrics unit to cope with growing delivery needs in Highlands Ranch and Lone Tree.
The Littleton project was started this fall and is the first major capital project undertaken by the Centura system since PorterCare and Catholic Health Initiatives signed a joint operating agreement last spring.
``The emergency room was originally constructed to serve 20,000 patients a year,'' Swedish said of Littleton Adventist's capacity. ``We now see over 50,000 patients per year.''
The expansion enables Littleton Adventist to treat more trauma injuries, expand surgery space and add a neonatal intensive care unit. It also is installing a suite of high-tech medical equipment.
Likewise, Centura is planning expansion at St. Anthony North, which opened in 1971 as a satellite cammpus to serve Adam County residents. Despite a two-story addition that was added nearly five years ago, improvements are needed in other areas. Centura is assessing improvements at many of the 17 hospitals that it manages statewide.
``The other issue we deal with is the aging population, and the demand for care related to the increasing severity of illness,'' Swedish said.
HealthOne has expansion plans at most of its suburban hospital locations, as well as a few of its 40 outpatient centers. It will increase emergency room service capabilities at Centennial Medical Plaza in Englewood and buy new magnetic resonance imaging equipment. The center offers day surgery, imaging, a laboratory and pharmacy, and other services. It plans to increase operating room and intensive care unit space at Swedish Medical Center in Englewood. And at the North Suburban Medical Center in Thornton, HealthOne is expanding the emergency room by adding 11 beds. It also has broken ground on new medical offices at the facility.
Kaiser Permanente is considering expanding a number of suburban facilities in 2003, although specific projects will hinge on membership influxes and other factors, a spokeswoman said.
Unlike the physician-owned, short-stay Precedent Health Care hospital that was built downtown in 1998 but failed after 14 months of operation, the new hospitals and expansions must take a different philosophy, Swedish said.
``You really have to go to where the people are today,'' he said.
INFOBOX
NEW SUBURBAN HOSPITALS, EXPANSION
To cope with population growth and changing demographics, health care providers are proposing new facilities and expansions.
New buildings
1. Fitzsimons redevelopment
Aurora (Colfax Ave. and Ursula St.)
Anschutz Outpatient Pavilion
size: 476,000 sq. ft.
cost: $119 million
Anschutz Cancer Pavilion
size: 106,000
cost: $28.7 million
Rocky Mt. Lions Eye Institute
size: 46,000 sq. ft.
cost: $12.1 million
Univ. of Colorado Hospital
size: 300-bed hospital
cost: $35 million (1st phase)
2. Castle Rock Medical Group
Castle Rock
size: 50-bed hospital
cost: $20-$25 million
3. HealthOne
Lone Tree (Lincoln and I-25)
size: 125-bed hospital
cost: $100+ million
4. Centura Health
Douglas County
(No official announcement has been made)
Building expansion
5. Centura Health - Littleton Adventist
Littleton (7700 S. Broadway)
36 bed and emergency room expansion expected to cost $38 million
6. Centura Health - Avista Adventist
Louisville (100 Health Park Drive)
7. Centura Health - St. Anthony
Westminster (2551 W. 84th Ave.)
8. North Suburban Medical Center
Thornton (9191 Grant St.)
9. Swedish Medical
Englewood (501 E. Hampton Ave.)
10. Centennial Medical Plaza - HealthOne
(14200 E. Arapahoe Road)
CAPTION(S):
Color Photo (3), Color Map
Rick Taylor of GE Medical Systems removes equipment used to power up the magnet of an MRI machine at Littleton Adventist Hospital. The hospital plans an addition next year. By Hal Stoelzle / News Staff Photographer.
CAPTION: Glass and pillars, above, create a study in lighting in a hallway connecting the Anschutz Cancer Pavilion and the Anschutz Outpatient Pavilion at the growing Fitzsimons medical complex. By Dennis Schroeder / News Staff Photographer.
CAPTION: Below, construction continues on the outpatient pavilion. By Dennis Schroeder / News Staff Photographer.
CAPTION: Locator Map / New suburban hospitals, expansion. By News staff. See Infobox for additional information.
