Intermountain Well being Lutheran Hospital Welcomed First Sufferers August 3 at New Campus

Saturday morning noticed 159 sufferers on the Intermountain Well being Lutheran Medical Heart in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.

However by the tip of the day, the rooms on the outdated facility had been empty and hallways quiet. A convention room about 3.5 miles away on the new Intermountain Well being Lutheran Hospital nonetheless was stuffed with cheering caregivers as the brand new hospital formally celebrated its first day of operation.

Saturday, Aug. 3, was the historic Transfer Day caregivers rigorously deliberate for greater than two years.

Intermountain Well being Lutheran Medical Heart, which has operated for over a century, formally closed its doorways at 6 am. For the following eight hours and quarter-hour, sufferers had been safely discharged dwelling or transported by ambulance to the brand new Intermountain Well being Lutheran Hospital that additionally opened at 6 am.

Hospital planning groups gathered on Saturday at 3 am in convention rooms at each hospitals to depend the variety of inpatients and overview the well being standing of sufferers and monitor their switch to the brand new hospital or discharge dwelling.

Then they started working coordinating affected person departures. All through the day, about 20 ambulances with EMS crews circulated backwards and forwards between the hospitals.

Kathy Crabtree, chief medical officer for Intermountain Well being Lutheran Hospital, stated the day was hectic, as anticipated, however total, very profitable in safely shifting sufferers.

“Our caregivers had been wonderful and labored so laborious to coordinate a secure switch of sufferers from the outdated campus to the brand new hospital,” she stated. “We couldn’t have achieved it with out this collaborative effort. We’re actually proud and grateful to our whole group.”

Heidi Boyd, RN, cost nurse for the progressive care unit, labored lengthy hours throughout the days main as much as the transfer speaking with sufferers and their households concerning the transfer. She spent Saturday on the present hospital and helped transfer 19 sufferers.

“I believe we’re all tremendous excited to have a brand-new hospital, and the sufferers are, as properly. However there’s these nerves. This constructing has been right here endlessly. A variety of us have labored right here for a number of years so, it’s bittersweet,” stated Boyd who has labored at Lutheran Medical Heart for 10 years.

Lutheran Hospital hospitalist and web site medical director Ritika Patel, MD, was one of many leaders working within the command middle, coordinating the stream of visitors and informing physicians when their sufferers can be transported.

A part of that work concerned ensuring every affected person’s care group transferred over to the brand new hospital with that affected person.

“In the event that they cared for them within the present hospital, they are going to take care of them within the new hospital,” she stated.

As a result of the variety of caregivers at every hospital was balanced at noon, that’s after they deliberate to switch the sufferers who had been most critically in poor health.

“It feels fairly nostalgic, emotional,” stated Dr. Patel, who got here to work at Lutheran Medical Heart after her residency coaching. “I really feel like I’ve grown up right here as a doctor. Strolling by way of or previous the flooring and speaking to a number of the nurses who’ve been right here so long as I’ve, and all of us do not forget that room. Some models hit dwelling laborious.”

Dr. Crabtree started her day on the command middle within the new hospital, and it was there when caregivers introduced the ultimate affected person transport was full.

“Numerous combined feelings at the moment. Our outdated hospital has had so many recollections for me. I’ve spent a lot of my profession there and it has been such an vital a part of our group’s historical past, that I’m unhappy to see it go. Nonetheless, I’m actually excited for our new hospital, which has been designed to allow us to offer the very best care potential, and the promise it holds for our group as a spot of therapeutic,” she stated.

With that, begins the following chapter of the historical past of healthcare for the group.

About Intermountain Well being

Headquartered in Utah with areas in six states and extra operations throughout the western U.S., Intermountain Well being is a nonprofit system of 33 hospitals, 385 clinics, medical teams with some 4,600 employed physicians and superior care suppliers, a well being plans division known as Choose Well being with multiple million members, and different well being providers. Serving to folks dwell the healthiest lives potential, Intermountain is dedicated to enhancing group well being and is widely known as a pacesetter in remodeling healthcare by utilizing evidence-based finest practices to persistently ship high-quality outcomes at sustainable prices. For extra data or updates, see https://intermountainhealthcare.org/information.