Getting past the baby steps

Six months after Memorial Hospital North opened, the city’s newest hospital is overcoming early financial losses and confusion about the services it offers, and officials say its patient-friendly design is proving effective.

After three months of revenue shortfalls totaling $8.3 million and fewer-than-projected patients, Memorial Hospital North turned a profit of $319,000 in August. Officials say their strategy of fast-tracking construction to open before the competition was a sound one.

“The city has taken to the concept — patient satisfaction surveys show people don’t feel like they’re in a hospital, it’s like coming to a hotel combined with a hospital, which is conducive to healing,” said Steve Schaefer, vice president of strategic development for the municipal health care system.

More patients are aware the hospital is open and are using it, said Joy Powell, vice president and administrator of Memorial Hospital North. The $146 million, 224,000-square-foot oval-shaped building towers five stories into the skyline at Austin Bluffs Parkway, Union Boulevard and Briargate Parkway.

Usage has varied, she said. The hospital’s 98 beds were full several days last month and were at 71 percent capacity last week.

The hospital’s most popular service, the birth center, delivered 745 babies from May through September and averaged 149 a month. The emergency department has averaged 1,856 monthly visits for a total of 9,281 patients through September. And 1,320 surgeries were performed through September, about 66 percent of the hospital’s capacity.

Memorial has promoted the hospital as full-service, including in a press kit and on its Web site. But the facility does not have an intensive care unit for trauma and critically ill patients or a pediatric inpatient unit.

Some in the community seem unclear about the hospital’s services.

For example, American Medical Response ambulance company issued on June 14 an advisory to “all field crews” stating, “With the opening of Memorial North, it has become necessary to provide clear guidelines on what patients may be transported to that facility.”

The advisory tells drivers that the following should not be transported to Memorial Hospital North: critically ill adult or pediatric patients who may require admission to an intensive care unit; patients having a heart attack, cerebralvascular accident or stroke; and obstetrics trauma.

“If there is ever a question regarding transporting a patient to Memorial North, please take the time and contact that facility prior to initiating transport,” the advisory said.

The north hospital is not designated to receive trauma patients, so ambulances are required to bypass it, said Dr. George Hertner, North emergency medical director.

Critically ill or trauma patients are stabilized by emergency physicians before being transferred.

Transferred patients primarily have been brought in by family members or have walked into the hospital, said Chris Valentine, Memorial Health System spokesman.

Up to four patients a day are being transferred to Memorial Hospital Central near downtown Colorado Springs or to other larger hospitals, according to Hertner. Most are moved by ambulance. Since North opened April 25, 10 patients have been transported to another hospital by helicopter, Valentine said.

The new hospital was not intended to treat trauma or critically ill patients, Powell said, because it complements the system’s flagship central hospital by serving residents in northern and eastern Colorado Springs, Monument, Palmer Lake and Larkspur. Powell said the hospital has been advertising and offering community health fairs to make people aware of its services.

Many hospital systems have a main, top-level traumadesignated site and other sites with fewer services, said Richard Haugh, spokesman for the Colorado Hospital Association.

Penrose-St. Francis Health Services has operated a 108-bed community hospital on the city’s east side since 1975 with an emergency room, birth center and surgery area. Most will move in August to a new hospital Penrose is building at Powers Boulevard and Woodmen Road. The 158-bed St. Francis Medical Center will have intensive care and pediatric inpatient units and will work on obtaining a trauma designation, said Julie Cox, spokeswoman.

Memorial’s goal of opening its new hospital before another opened Oct. 1 in Teller County and before St. Francis Medical Center was the right plan, Schaefer said.

Memorial Hospital North features upscale amenities such as video fireplaces, Zen gardens, a gourmet café and posh private rooms.

Ethienne Rodriguez, whose wife was in Memorial Hospital North on Wednesday after surgery, said he likes the hightech style and room service.

“It does feel more like a hotel, which I’m sure promotes business,” he said.

Patients also like having a hospital in their neighborhood. Sarai Shaw, 23, had thyroid surgery Monday at Memorial’s main hospital and was at Memorial Hospital North on Wednesday for follow-up lab work.

“It’s closer to her home, which was a big convenience for her,” said her mother, Rose Stone.

Memorial officials are creating a facilities master plan that could include recommendations to expand the northside hospital. The plan will be completed within six months, Schaefer said. The campus could accommodate up to 500 beds. Memorial officials have discussed adding other health care-related buildings or commercial buildings such as restaurants and hotels on its 82-acre site.

A more pressing priority, he said, is completing a medical office building next to the hospital in the first quarter of 2008. Construction initially was scheduled to be completed this fall. Committed tenants include physicians who specialize in general and vascular surgery, vein treatment, breast care, eye problems, cardiology and gastro-intestinal diseases.

Schaefer said having specialists close to the north hospital will enable them to treat patients in the hospital and funnel patients needing surgery to the hospital.

As a result, hospital officials are predicting Memorial Hospital North emergency room visits will nearly double next year, and patient admissions will rise 63 percent.

Gazette reporter Pam Zubeck contributed to this story.