CREJ - Healthcare Properties - January 2018
As Colorado expects to gain 3 million new residents between now and 2050, Aurora-based UCHealth is bringing board-certified family and internal medicine providers to communities where growth is prompting the need for more primary care physicians. The strategy centers around the goals of bringing high-quality care closer to home. In the southeast metro Denver community of Castle Rock, UCHealth Castle Rock Medical Center already is providing patients with primary care, urgent care, occupational medicine and physical therapy. In southwest Denver, UCHealth Sterling Ranch Medical Center is being built – part of a new residential master-planned community in Douglas County to which more than 30,000 people are expected to move to within the next 20 years. The medical center, which also will offer primary care, urgent care, occupational medicine and physical therapy, is located next to the community’s welcome center and will offer Sterling Ranch residents access to all the leading-edge care associated with the UCHealth system when it opens later this year. Also on the horizon is UCHealth Highlands Ranch Hospital, set to open in early 2019. Mortenson Construction is the general contractor on the project. Located near Lucent Boulevard and C-470, the full-service hospital will feature a Level III NICU, cancer center, advanced cardiac services, women’s services and an intensive care unit. It will offer patients being seen at Castle Rock and Sterling Ranch medical centers – as well as at a number of other primary care locations nearby – access to advanced medicine and clinical trials not offered anywhere else along the Front Range. And, right in the Cherry Creek neighborhood of metro Denver, UCHealth is building a specialty care facility that will open in late 2019. UCHealth Cherry Creek Medical Center will offer services close to home for patients already seeing primary care and urgent care providers at nearby UCHealth Steele Street Medical Center and elsewhere.
In addition, the health system is welcoming new providers either as new hires or as independent practices choosing to join UCHealth. Providers may be a part of UCHealth Medical Group or the University of Colorado School of Medicine faculty. Since February, nine UCHealth primary care practices – with multiple providers – have come on line or are about to – and that’s just in the Denver metro area alone. UCHealth is investing in additional practice opportunities in Greenwood Village, Broomfield, Highlands Ranch, Parker and Littleton, to name a few. Additional clinics have on-boarded and continue to do so in both Southern and Northern Colorado. The challenge is just keeping up with the growth of neighborhoods. “We know that it is difficult in various areas for patients to find primary care doctors and find practices that are accepting new patients,” said UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital President and CEO Will Cook. “It is important for UCHealth to bring highly qualified primary care providers to these communities – specifically inside the communities – where our patients live, work and play. And our electronic medical record system integration provides a seamless transition of care when patients are referred to a UCHealth specialist.” •Why are primary care physicians so crucial? “Routine visits with a primary care doctor are the key to maintaining your health,” said Dr. Mihir Patel, a Castle Rock resident and family medicine physician who is caring for the community’s patients at UCHealth Castle Rock Medical Center. “Through regular preventive care screenings and physicals, we assist patients in learning how to lead a healthier life. We coordinate care with specialists as needed, keep an eye on all medications that a patient might be using, and recommend changes in diet or lifestyle to promote longevity and wellness.” Through UCHealth Integrated Network, dozens of facilities and over 2,000 providers have come together to advance the health of people throughout Colorado. “We focus on developing models of delivering care that better the health of the entire patient population while improving health outcomes, patient experience, provider and staff satisfaction, and the affordability of health care. This allows our participating providers to focus on putting their patients first,” said Jean Haynes, UCHealth chief population health officer. The clinically integrated network of providers and health care facilities, which formed in 2016, aims to improve care coordination among its partners to manage costs and improve the quality of care for patients. “Our mission and the mission of population health really is to help manage the health of our patients so they are healthy – so they are staying out of the hospital and living extraordinary,” Cook said. “Patients are excited that they don’t have to drive hours and hours to get to UCH for care we are now providing in their communities.”