New Kaiser Permanente facility to pilot clinical innovations
DENVER — Kaiser Permanente on Thursday said it will open a health-innovation center in Denver’s River North district that will serve as a pilot site where new clinical innovations and processes will be tested.
The innovations could eventually find their way into other Kaiser facilities in the state.
Kaiser Permanente operates 30 medical offices across the state, including Boulder, Fort Collins, Greeley, Lafayette, Longmont and Loveland.
“Excellence in care delivery doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” Roland Lyon, president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado, said in a prepared statement. “It requires continuous testing and flexibility to meet the demands of an evolving industry and our members’ interest in receiving convenient care.”
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Kaiser will take space in the 300,000-square-foot Catalyst Health-Tech Innovation Center being constructed on the west side of Brighton Boulevard between 35th and 36th streets. Catalyst is being jointly developed by Koelbel and Co., health-tech entrepreneur Mike Biselli, and landowners the Burgess family. Slated to open in first quarter 2018, Catalyst HTI will house digital-health startups and established health-care entities. So far, several tenants have signed on, including University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center, Terumo BCT, the American Diabetes Association, Prime Health, Revolar and Medical Group Management Association.
Kaiser’s center will provide evening and Saturday morning appointments. A physician assistant or nurse practitioner and licensed practical nurse will be on staff. Physicians will rotate through and provide video consultations to patients.
According to the PwC Health Research Institute’s Top Health Industry Issues of 2016 report, 60 percent of U.S. health-care consumers are willing to schedule a video visit with a physician through a mobile device. The report also revealed that in 2007, 10 percent of consumers had visited a retail-health clinic. In contrast, 36 percent of consumers visited a retail health clinic in 2015.
