HCA-HealthOne will pour $250 million into face-lifts and expansions – including a new children’s hospital downtown – at three of its area hospitals over the next three years, the health-care giant announced Monday.
Swedish Medical Center in Englewood and the Medical Center of Aurora will get new private rooms, among other improvements.
But Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center will get the biggest single chunk of the money – $111 million – most of which will pay for a 54-bed children’s hospital.
The Children’s Hospital at P/SL will be connected to the existing Presbyterian/St. Luke’s building but will have a separate entrance, a separate emergency department and its own surgical suites.
Plans for P/SL’s facility comes as Children’s Hospital prepares to vacate its downtown campus just blocks from Presbyterian/ St. Luke’s and move to the for mer Fitzsimons Army hospital site in Aurora.
However, in September, Children’s Hospital and Exempla announced a partnership to create a 12-bed, $18 million pediatric, acute-care facility at St. Joseph’s downtown site – also within walking distance of P/SL.
The relocation of Children’s Hospital may have influenced the timing of HealthOne’s decision to create a new hospital, said HealthOne spokeswoman Linda Kanamine.
But, she said, “our demand has been growing anyway. We knew we had to do it at some point” just to keep pace.
For the most part, children are healthier than adults and are less likely to spend time in the hospital. Nevertheless, “there is money to be made” in health care for kids, said Allan Baumgarten, an industry analyst who compiles the Colorado Managed Care Review.
“It’s not surprising that P/SL is prepared to make an investment in a new pediatric facility,” he said. That is an effective way not only to attract patients but to retain star doctors, he said.
HealthOne’s plans also include:
Some $84 million to upgrade four floors, expand surgical services and remodel the neonatal intensive-care unit at Swedish Medical Center, and to redesign the emergency department and renovate the parking garage there.
Building a 140,000-square- foot tower for private patient rooms at the Medical Center of Aurora, as well as expanding the intensive-care cardiovascular units there. Most patient rooms will be converted to private rooms, and a new front entrance will be created as well. Altogether, the hospital will add 32 beds; expansion there will cost $60 million.
In addition to the new children’s hospital, P/SL will get an expanded cancer-care and bone-marrow-transplant unit and a 120,000-square-foot medical office building.
HCA-HealthOne, which operates as a joint venture between the for-profit HCA and nonprofit HealthOne Alliance, reported net income before taxes of $253.7 million in 2004, almost five times that of its nearest Colorado competitor, nonprofit Centura Health.
The company is metro Denver’s largest health-care provider, with seven hospitals and 8,700 employees.
Staff writer Karen Auge can be reached at 303-820-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com.
