Health-Care Providers Expand Facilities, Services
Published Nov 19, 2008
Covering 50,000 square feet, The Children’s Hospital North Campus opened in Broomfield in fall 2008.
As Metro North’s population expands, so does the capacity – and sophistication – of health-care services available to residents. Served by multiple providers, the region reaps the benefits of competition and medical advances.
For example, St. Anthony North Hospital, a member of Centura Health, has purchased land at Interstate 25 and 144th Avenue with plans to build a free-standing emergency room, medical office building and diagnostic ambulatory services. The doors should open in early 2010.
“This is the fastest-growing area in the Denver metropolitan region, and there’s a lot of growth along the I-25 corridor,” says Chief Executive Officer James Dover. “Our 144th Avenue location is right in the center of all the growth. I’m a tennis player, so I’d say we picked a location right in the sweet spot.”
The site is about nine miles from the St. Anthony North campus in Westminster, which has Centura Health’s busiest emergency room. “We see over 43,000 visits a year in our emergency room,” Dover says, “and we’re part of the whole St. Anthony Central Level I trauma center system.” That means St. Anthony North is a member of Flight for Life emergency transport services.
In October 2008, St. Anthony North also opened a medical office building connected to the Westminster hospital, featuring a comprehensive program for orthopedic care.
One-of-a-Kind Wound Care Clinic
Orthopedics also is a specialty of Thornton-based North Suburban Medical Center, which features total joint-replacement surgery. North Suburban is a member of the HCA-HealthONE system.
Registered nurse Carolyn Vitale is director of North Suburban’s orthopedic, bariatric and spine programs, and in late 2008 she added another task to her list of responsibilities – overseeing the medical center’s new outpatient Wound Care Clinic.
“The unique thing about having an outpatient clinic is that a team of physicians and nurses whose expertise is wound care will build the appropriate plan for the patient,” Vitale says. “In addition, we also offer hyperbaric oxygen medicine.”
Hyperbaric oxygen patients spend time in one of the clinic’s two pressurized chambers, inhaling 100 percent oxygen at greater-than-normal atmospheric pressure. “That increased level of oxygen increases the level of oxygen in the patient’s blood, which then accelerates the body’s healing process. It allows better vascularization and healing of the tissues,” she explains. The service is the only one of its kind in Metro North.
Expanded Pediatric Care
More specialization is found at The Children’s Hospital, with its main campus in Aurora plus 12 other Denver metro area facilities.
Jeff Harrington, vice president of finance and interim vice president for the hospital’s Network of Care, describes the map of hospital locations as “a spoke-and-hub network.” Two of those spokes dart into Metro North – a therapy facility in Westminster and a comprehensive location in Broomfield, which opened in October 2008.
Called The Children’s Hospital North Campus, the new 50,000-square-foot facility’s offerings include urgent care, observation beds, imaging, sleep-disorders treatment, audiology and speech care, ambulatory surgery, sports medicine, and physicians’ clinic space. “Our market data and analysis showed that Metro North has a growing population, and our goal with the Network of Care is basically to be convenient to all the parents and families in the area,” Harrington says.
The Broomfield facility is at I-25 and Colorado State Highway 7.
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
Photo by Todd Bennett
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