Construction begins on AFM’s southside office

FORT COLLINS — Associates in Family Medicine P.C. is opening a new office in Fort Collins. The general medical practice is building an 18,000-square-foot facility at the northeast corner of Richmond Drive and Horsetooth Road, across from Poudre Valley Plaza.

A staff of six physicians and one or two physician’s assistants or nurse practitioners will staff the facility, which will offer general care, mammography, diagnostic X-ray services, urgent care and ultimately, some form of complementary medicine.

The new building, which will likely be called West Fort Collins Medical Center, will replace AFM’s existing office in the Raintree Plaza at Drake Road and South Shields Street. Physicians practicing at that office will move to the new facility, and three more primary-care physicians will be hired for the new site, said AFM executive director Dr. Don Wells.

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“We looked at the tremendous population growth in southwest Fort Collins and felt that the area was relatively underserved medically,” Wells said.

With the opening of the new site, scheduled for an October debut, and closure of the Raintree office, AFM will maintain five offices.

The new office will offer extended hours, operating from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and offering all services during those times.

PVHS, doctors partner for new campus

FORT COLLINS — Seven physicians have signed contracts to be partners with Poudre Valley Health System in the development of the system’s Harmony Campus.

Mountain View Family Practice physicians Crystal Askew, April Gray, David Ottolenghi and James Seeton; opthalmalogist Dr. Andrew Norris; and Poudre Valley Internal Medicine doctors Dr. Cathy Ow and Dr. Grace Alessi will move their offices to the three-story, 124,000-square-foot doctors’ building to be built in the first phase of campus construction.

The Fort Collins City Planning and Zoning Board has approved plans for the new campus to be built on the southeast corner of Harmony and Timberline roads.

The first phase of construction will cost about $54 million and will consist of the doctors’ building, which will accommodate up to 80 primary-care and specialty physicians, and an 87,000-square-foot, two-story building for outpatient services. The buildings, landscaping and parking for 850 vehicles will occupy 22.7 acres of the 96-acre site.

Quality measurement groups join forces

Three health care quality oversight organizations will join forces to develop common quality-measurement standards and combine quality-measurement efforts to promote greater accountability in the health care industry.

The American Medical Accreditation Program (AMAP), the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) have established the Performance Measurement Coordinating Council and appointed a director to develop a common measurement agenda.

“Integrating our efforts will help speed and improve the measure development process, ultimately putting better information into the hands of the people who need it the most — physicians, health care organizations and the public,´ said Randolph D. Smoak Jr., M.D., chair of the AMAP and the American Medical Association Board of Trustees.

PVHS hires Y2K coordinator

FORT COLLINS — Poudre Valley Health System has hired a Year 2000 coordinator to oversee the system’s Y2K remediation and contingency plans.

Lisa Lundgren left her position with the Larimer County Department of Health and Environment, where she worked as a public health nurse and environmental health specialist, in order to take the job with PVHS. In her new position, she will oversee internal preparations, work with local public agencies to identify and solve potential Y2K problems and help ensure that the system’s suppliers and vendors are able to meet their obligations.

“PVH has been working on Y2K since last year and doing what needs to be done,´ said Stephanie Doughty, CFO for PVHS. “But we thought it would be important to have someone tracking the efforts of our multi-disciplinary Y2K team.”

Helen Taylor can be reached at (970) 221-5400, (970) 356-1683, (800) 440-3506 or via e-mail at htaylor@ncbr.com. Her fax number is (970) 221-5432.