Brighton – Colorado’s newest hospital has 78 beds – all in private rooms – a sandstone lobby fireplace, a wireless patient-monitoring system, voice-activated operating-room equipment – and not a single corporate dollar at its disposal.
The $138-million Platte Valley Medical Center, which opened Tuesday, was built with money from private foundations, the federal government and business leaders in Brighton.
The nonprofit hospital exists thanks to “the widespread support of more than 560 individuals and companies in our own community and beyond,” said John Rhoades, co-chairman of the committee that raised $8.1 million in donations.
In addition to community money, the project got $300,000 from the Boettcher Foundation and $500,000 from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs.
The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, through its hospital mortgage program, guaranteed a loan for much of the remaining cost.
The three-story hospital, which shoots out of the plains alongside Interstate 76, replaces one built in the 1970s in downtown Brighton.
John Hicks, the hospital’s chief executive, said the fast-growing region had outgrown its old hospital.
Tuesday morning, ambulances transferred 14 patients from the old building to the new.
Elective surgeries and treatment had been put on hold for several days, so the hospital had fewer patients than usual, said spokeswoman Cynthia Gleason.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the staff was caring for 24 patients, had treated 30 in the emergency department and was awaiting the first baby born in the new location.
The new hospital’s “special care” nursery already had two tiny patients – twins who were the last babies born at the old location.
Hicks said the new hospital’s sleek furnishings, private rooms and cozy lobby didn’t raise many eyebrows among donors in the community of about 28,000.
First, he said, donors realized the importance of a “healing environment” and the need to attract staff.
Besides, he said, “The decor is not what drives up the cost. It’s the equipment.”
That equipment includes a CT scanner, MRI machine, a separate operating room in the labor and delivery department, private intensive-care rooms for newborns and wireless patient monitoring and patient-record access throughout.
Staff writer Karen Augé can be reached at 303-954-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com.
Platte Valley Medical Center by the numbers
Size: Three buildings totaling nearly 300,000 square feet on 50 acres
Cost: $138 million
Capacity: 78 patient beds
Workforce: More than 500 employees plus 250 physicians on staff
Location: 1600 Prairie Center Parkway, Brighton
