Health-care construction proliferates

Demographics, managed care and lack of health-insurance coverage are driving a wave of medical construction in Northern Colorado and southern Wyoming.

The demographic explosion in Colorado, an aging population in need of care, expansion of health-maintenance organizations and a growing number of inadequately insured residents have put pressure on existing medical facilities, physicians and systems of health delivery.

Whereas in the past, many communities along the Front Range were able to accommodate the needs of low-income or poorly insured residents, community clinics are now needed to serve this sometimes invisible but growing population. Likewise, physicians who previously were able to function as sole practitioners have been forced to look toward economies of scale in order to compete.

But of all the forces driving new medical and health-care construction, an aging population that needs assistance and eventual nursing care seems to have generated the most building activity.