Colorado Springs to Undergo Major Hospital Construction Expansion

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — In the next several years, UCHealth Memorial Hospital, Penrose-St. Francis Health Services, Children’s Hospital Colorado and Adeptus Health Inc. are planning approximately $1 billion in projects. With the $1 billion, the health systems have planned three new hospitals, two hospital expansions, two major renovations and a few clinics, laboratories and other facilities set to be complete within the next five years, according to The Gazette. The projects do not, however, include long-term care facilities or small medical and dental offices.

The projects that are currently in the planning or construction processes are worth more than double the value of other projects on hospitals and institutions that have started within the past 15 years, according to the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department.

In recent years, Colorado Springs has experienced an aging population, an influx of retirees moving to the area, mainly for health care purposes, and it is becoming the health care destination for Southern and Eastern Colorado. Officials in the health care industry have linked these changes to the construction boom of hospitals in the area.

The University of Colorado School of Medicine will be opening a branch in April on the school’s Colorado Springs campus for third- and fourth-year students, who will complete clinical rotations at surrounding hospitals and medical centers, according to The Gazette. This expansion to the school comes as the industry is also expanding.

With the rising population and the increasing need for health care, the Colorado Springs area feels it needs to grow as well. “The area’s population is predicted to grow by more than 300,000 by 2040 in forecasts by the State Demographer’s Office, and at the same time, the nation’s population is becoming increasingly obese and diabetic and will need more health care as a result,” said Tatiana Bailey, director of the Southern Colorado Economic Forum, in a statement. “I also see Colorado Springs becoming a more regional hub for health care, given our location and consolidation of health care providers and facilities in larger cities.”

If the city wants to become a hub for health care providers, they are going to have to grow, as the area has a below-average number of beds for patients. According to the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, the Colorado Spring area had 1.8 beds for every 1,000 residents in 2012, which is below the average of two beds per 1,000 residents.

The growth in construction in the health care industry will also generate jobs in the area, according to Bailey. Data from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment has shown that in the last five years, the number of residents in the area employed in health care and social assistance has jumped by 21.1 percent, which is more than double the job growth rate in the overall economy. According to the data, approximately one in every seven workers was employed in the health care industry.

Penrose-St. Francis Health Services, which is operated by Centura Health and owned by Catholic Health Initiatives, would have to approve the $700 million in funding for the project, as their companies planned the construction for the most part. According to Margaret Sabin, CEO of Penrose-St. Francis and president of Centura’s southern Colorado operations, the plan would include a few neighborhood health centers, which would expand the primary care medical practices and provide health care closer to patients. The expansion of health care in the Colorado Springs area has also brought economic changes.

“Two years ago, 5 percent of our patients came from outside the Colorado Springs area. We have now passed the 10 percent mark on out-of-area patients, and they are coming from as far away as Durango, the San Luis Valley and Eastern Colorado,” Sabin said.

The construction on the new facilities is in part due to Colorado Springs becoming more of a regional draw for patients. The construction will include an expansion to the Penrose-St. Francis facility as it brings out-of-area patients for the hospitals reputation for heart surgery. The Children’s Hospital has plans to build a hospital on a campus in the Colorado Springs area with the hope of drawing patients from Southern Colorado and possibly New Mexico, Kansas and Texas, said Greg Raymond, Children’s Hospital vice president for its Southern Colorado Region.

“Our mission is to provide care closer to [the patient’s] home. Sometimes that will be in a clinic, urgent care facility or therapy location. This [hospital] facility is an extension of that to provide a high level of care to all of Southern Colorado,” Raymond said of the ongoing construction projects.