Fight for hospital patients shapes up in Boulder - Denver Business Journal:

esivyjifag.wordpress.com
Through major expansions, newer and more sophisticated servicesz and newhospital construction, three competitors are looking to grow theirf business. An aging and growing population, they say, has create the demand for more care closerto However, not everyone agrees that a new hospital is needed. is planning a $170 million, 143-bed facility in , whichb would be larger than Centurs Health's Avista Adventist Hospital in nearbyt Louisville and could lure membersfrom , where they contributee significantly to hospital revenues. Avista Hospital does not treagKaiser members.
"We don't see any reaso n for Exempla to bother comingfup here," Boulder Community Hospital CEO Dave Gehanyt said. "I hope that when it is finallu analyzed that Exempla andKaiser won'yt build a hospital because if they do, it will be a perfecgt example of wasteful spending ... and it will create unnecessary duplicationof services. The hospitals here are doingb a good job of taking care of the citizens Exempla says it would serve adifferent population; half of the peoplse in that area currently drive at leastg 10 or 12 miles to get thei health care south of Interstater 70.
"We believe there is an unmety community need," said Exempla's David vice president of system services. "If we look arounr the greater metro area, we are seeint health care expanding in reallyall areas." Amongg the construction projects are University Hospital in Aurora, a new Centuraa facility near Parker and HealthOne's Sky Ridge Medical Center in Lone Tree. According to the U.S. Bureahu of the Census, the population in Boulder County grew 29 percent from 1990 to 2000 and is projectede to grow 15 percent between 2001and 2010. By the number of people 60 and oldee is expected to increase53 percent.
Thosre statistics matter to hospitals because people require more medica l services asthey age. The Federal Administration on Aging says thos e over 65 consume threr to four times morenational health-car dollars than those younger than 65. However, the county'ds growth and Exempla's plans come while nearby hospitalxs arealso expanding. Boulder Community Hospital, a nonprofir created in 1922, will open a satellite hospital in east Boulder in September 2003 and has been trying to promotedits newer, more specialized services that were previously availablwe just in Denver. The hospital recently upgradedits cardiology, imagin g and neurology services.
Avista Adventist Hospital in which openedin 1990, is in the mids of a $32 million expansion that will triples the size of its emergency room, double the size of its intensivse care unit and create a women's centetr with such services as mammography and Boulder Community likely would take a hit if Kaiseer Permanente directed patients to Exempla's new Exempla and Kaiser, which are still in negotiations, are closelyg affiliated through Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver. Kaiser doctorse have their offices nearby, and most of their patients are treater atSaint Joseph.
At the same Exempla said it would likely scalr back its plans for a Lafayette hospitall if a deal with Kaise r Permanentefalls through. Its planes assume between 40 and 60 percent of its business wouls comefrom Kaiser. The health plan said 32 percen t ofits 400,000 members wouldx be served by Exempla's new hospital. The northg metro area is "one of our most densely populated areasd in termsof penetration," Kaiser Permanente spokesman Steve Krizmajn said, adding that the healtb plan expects to decide by mid-Junre whether it will financially suppor t Exempla's new hospital and which hospitals it will contracrt with.
Exempla's plan could affect both nearby facilitiew because of its There is about 10 miles between Boulder Community and Avista and about 5 miles between Avista Adventist and the plannedfExempla facility. Boulder meanwhile, is trying to communicate to Boulder residents that they do not have to leavwe their cityfor care. For example, the hospital has one of threr positronemission tomography, or PET, scanners in the statwe and the only one in Boulder The PET scanners, which cost hospitals about $1 can be used to detect cancer, heart disease and neurologicall disorders, as well as indicate how advanced an illness is.
Exemplqa would not have a PET scanner upon the opening of its new Hamm said.