Hospitals

The three major hospitals in Northern Colorado have long aimed to ensure the health and well being of the region’s residents. Over the years, they have taken central roles in ensuring the health and well being of the region’s economy.

In short they have grown into powerful employment centers, centers of community service and charitable giving.

In terms of employment, Greeley’s North Colorado Medical Center is the third largest employer in that city and the fifth largest in all of Weld County. Poudre Valley Health Systems ranks fifth among the largest employers in Larimer County, while Loveland’s McKee Medical Center is the  ninth. The three hospitals employ more than 5,000 people in Northern Colorado; many in high-paying professional positions.

Each community has long had its own hospital. The original three-story building for Poudre Valley Hospital was built on the hospital’s existing site in Fort Collins in 1925. The Greeley hospital opened at its present site in 1952. McKee Medical Center opened in its current location in 1976. Behind each is decades of history in community healing.

As technology and health care capabilities grew alongside the region’s burgeoning population, the hospitals grew as well. In 2002 Poudre Valley leaped the one-hospital-per-town line when it announced construction of a new hospital in Loveland, in a prime location along Interstate 25, the region’s ever-busier Main Street. It was clear, health care industry experts said, that PVHS was positioning itself for a front-row seat in a new health-care marketplace.

At nearly the same time, the Loveland and Greeley hospitals, both operated by Banner Health Systems based in Phoenix, Ariz., launched expansion projects. Some observers characterized the moves as the beginning of a health-care range war for the growing population of aging, affluent baby boomers.

A short history of the growth of each hospital:

McKee Medical Center

• Opened in 1976 as a 90,000 square foot, 80-bed acute-care hospital.

• Expanded by 28,809-square-feet in 1982; opened 15,000-square-foot conference and wellness center in 1990.n opened the first on-site sleep lab in Northern Colorado and first on-site child care center in Larimer County in 1991.

• Added a medical office building, new pathology and endoscopy departments and expanded surgical and rehabilitation services in 1993.

• Opened McKee Cancer Center in 2002.

• Completed a new three-story wing, as well as McKee Breast Center and new orthopedic and inpatient oncology units.

Poudre Valley Health System

• Opened its original three-story building in 1925.

• Expanded multiple times to its present-day four-story 780,000-square-foot facility on Lemay Avenue.

• Developed the PVHS Harmony Campus at Harmony Road and Timberline in the 1990s, constructing a medical office building and ambulatory care center in 2000. A primary care plaza will open there in 2006.

• Began construction on the $240-million 136-bed Medical Center of the Rockies  in Loveland at I-25 and U.S. Highway 34 in 2004; will open in 2007.

North Colorado Medical Center

• First Weld County Hospital, opened at Island Grove Park in 1902.

• Opened a 220-bed, $3.25-million facility at its present site at 16th Street and 16th Avenue in 1945.

• Completed additions and renovations in 1957, 1965 and 1975 to add new wings, floors and an emergency room.

• Opened the Northern Colorado Oncology Center in 1978.

• Began construction in 1980 on a $21 million renovation and expansion project.

• Built a new $17.5-million outpatient care center in 1995.

• Completed work on a $13-million emergency department project.

on Facebook on LinkedIn