Intermountain Health Lutheran Hospital Welcomes Community in Pre-Opening Events
Intermountain Health Lutheran Hospital in Wheat Ridge, CO., welcomed nearly 7,500 guests during pre-opening celebrations thanking leaders and donors and giving them a look inside the new 620,000-square-foot hospital.
Intermountain Health held a reception on Thursday, July 18, for dignitaries, donors, health system leaders, and hospital caregivers. On Saturday, July 20, Intermountain Lutheran President Hospital Andrea Burch joined Wheat Ridge Mayor Bud Starker and local chambers of commerce for a ribbon cutting at the hospital entrance.
Then, doors opened for guided tours of the labor and delivery unit, neonatal intensive care unit, emergency room and main lobby. Guests enjoyed entertainment in the parking lot along with educational booths from different hospital departments and the Intermountain Health Medical Group.
The new hospital campus replaces the current Intermountain Lutheran Medical Center, located about three miles to the east. That hospital campus was originally founded in 1905 as a tuberculosis sanitorium. As the community of Wheat Ridge grew, a new hospital was built in 1961, with buildings added over the years.
“The truth is that even a renovation would not have brought us the same benefits as starting from scratch and building the hospital over,” Burch said at the Saturday event.
New construction will accommodate advanced technology today and into the future.
Burch also highlighted the improved access to Lutheran, which currently has one of Colorado’s busiest emergency department, she said.
The original campus was built amid farmland. Now, it is surrounded by homes and businesses, and traffic has increased. The new hospital is off Interstate 70 and 40th Avenue and will aid emergency medical services when they transport patients.
The new hospital also has a helipad on its roof with direct access to the trauma rooms, labor and delivery, and stroke care. The new hospital design is also more efficient with procedural areas close together and the heart catheter lab close to the emergency department.
“This is better for patients and staff,” Burch said.
The new hospital will have 226 licensed beds, which is like the current number of beds. Lutheran will maintain its Level II trauma designation and will continue to be the only hospital in Jefferson County to deliver babies.
Burch said she was especially proud of the art project at the new hospital. A committee chose more than 600 pieces of art to be installed. Nearly all were created by residents of Wheat Ridge or from throughout Colorado.
The new hospital is scheduled to open Aug. 3, when the former emergency department will close at 6 am and the new one will open. At 8 am, caregivers, with the help of more than 20 ambulances, will move an estimated 180 patients from the former hospital to the new hospital.
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