Banner Health, which operates 23 hospitals in seven states, says it is "moving forward" to build a 25-bed critical access hospital within a 10-mile stretch of northeastern Colorado between two existing facilities in Brush and Fort Morgan, subsequent to a county government recommendation.
Banner, a non-profit healthcare system, operates East Morgan County Hospital, a 25-bed facility in Brush, while LifePoint Hospitals, a for-profit system, operates Colorado Plains Medical Center, a 50-bed facility in Fort Morgan.
Recently, the Morgan County Healthcare Horizon Council called for more collaboration between the two systems to better coordinate services and expand healthcare needs for the county.
In announcing the project, Banner president and CEO Peter Fine said
"We believe a new hospital between Brush and Fort Morgan will bring these two communities together at a location that offers county residents state-of-the-art medical care, convenience and a highly coordinated patient experience."
"We're moving forward with this effort, but it's important to understand that this presents an ideal opportunity for Banner Health and LifePoint to come together as partners to build this campus and provide these needed health services for all residents of Morgan County," Fine said.
Fine said that while both facilities serve residents "extremely well," but they are more than 50 years old and "the reality is that they are outdated, older facilities that need to be replaced."
LifePoint operates 52 other hospitals in 18 states, most of them in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama and Texas. The Fort Morgan hospital is its only facility in Colorado.
It was unclear last week what participation in the project LifePoint is willing to offer.
The new Banner project is being called a campus because it will include a medical office building as well as a hospital, ancillary services such as medical imaging and a lab, a cardiology clinic and 26 other diagnostic specialty clinics. Through the Banner system, it will have a state-of-the-art electronic medical record system, Banner officials said.
"Many of these specialty services are not available in Fort Morgan today, so this is a tremendous improvement in the ability of Fort Morgan residents to conveniently access this care," Fine said.
In a report published last week in The Greeley Tribune, Banner officials estimated the cost of the new facility will be between $20 million and $30 million and will take 12 to 18 months to build. However Banner officials have not yet determined exactly where along the 10-mile stretch between the two towns the new campus will be placed.
This facility would be Banner's fifth in northern Colorado.