Exempla changes area’s health-care playing field

In 2007, Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette will expand its hospital by 30 beds for a total of 202 – second only to Boulder Community Hospital.

It’s also adding a new computed tomography, or CT, scanner, new mobile MRI and new nuclear medicine camera. The additions reflect Exempla’s growth, and seem to quell doubts that the Boulder Valley needed a fourth major hospital.

Part of that growth, however, has come at the expense of Boulder Community, Avista Adventist and Longmont United hospitals.

Since 2004, total inpatient and outpatient numbers are down 40.8 percent at Boulder Community, down 15.4 percent at…