Denver’s booming northeast corridor will get a new 98-bed, $138 million medical center in 2007. The hospital, a diagnostic center and physicians’ offices will be on a 50-acre campus near Interstate 76 and 144th Avenue.
The project is part of the Brom ley Park development, a master-planned community that will include 8,700 new homes, a 170-acre industrial park and town center, and an office and retail project.
The hospital will replace downtown Brighton’s 45- year-old Platte Valley Medical Center and is designed to draw patients from throughout Adams County, one of the state’s fastest-growing counties.
The new medical center will be more than double the current hospital’s capacity and will bring physicians and medical services to an area where demand has quickly pushed the old hospital to capacity, said Jim Hertel, board chairman of Platte Valley Medical Center and publisher of Colorado Managed Care newsletter.
“The growth that has come to the northeast quadrant of the metro area, with DIA (Denver International Airport) and the opening of E-470, has been dramatic,’ Hertel said.
During the past six years, surgery cases at Platte Valley Medical Center have increased 95 percent, outpatient visits have risen 70 percent and emergency-room visits have jumped 65 percent.
The new Platte Valley Medical Center is designed with the potential of expanding to a six-story, 300-bed medical center. And in its new location, the hospital “will become much more of a regional resource,’ Hertel said.
The nonprofit medical center will be community owned and financed. Platte Valley Medical Center foundation members plan to raise $7.5 million in private and corporate donations for the project. Other funds will come from government-backed bonds.
“The new hospital will boast enhanced technology, an advanced-level trauma center, and superior specialty services to ensure our ability to provide a comprehensive range of health-care services including quick access for those in need of emergency services,’ said John Hicks, the medical center’s chief executive.
Platte Valley Medical Center is one of only five Colorado hospitals designated as “disproportionate share’ facilities because of the many poor and uninsured patients it treats.
Nearly half of Platte Valley’s patients are covered by government health programs or have no health insurance at all.
“It’s one of a dying breed of hospitals,’ said Dr. Tillman Farley, medical-services director of Salud Family Health Centers and a hospital board member. Salud works in the community to provide primary health care for low-income people.
Platte Valley’s community ownership means a deep commitment to caring for indigent and uninsured patients, and that will continue at the new hospital, Farley said.
“They don’t turn away our patients,’ Farley said.
Staff writer Marsha Austin can be reached at 303-475-2796 or maustin@denverpost.com.
