WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. — Final preparations are underway for one of the largest hospital transfers seen in Colorado in years.
On Aug. 3rd, Intermountain Health will open the new Lutheran Hospital in Wheat Ridge. The same day, they’ll officially close the Lutheran Medical Center roughly three miles away.
That means roughly 180 patients will have to be moved to the new facility, an undertaking that’s been in the planning stages for roughly two years.
“It’s all a big math equation,” Casey Bogenschutz said. “How many patients do we have? How frequently will they be moving? How many ambulances do we need?”
Bogenschutz is the Director of Strategic Initiatives for the move and said they plan to stagger patient transfers throughout the day.
Twenty ambulances will transport patients down 38th Avenue, which will stay open to the public.
Ambulances will not travel with lights and sirens, but Bogenschutz said people should be prepared for heavy medical traffic.
They anticipate the entire transfer will take between eight and 10 hours, with a patient being moved roughly every 10 minutes.
“We will have some signage on the road that says this is a hospital move route because it could be alarming to folks to see so many ambulances going back and forth thinking what is going on?” Bogenschutz said. “We will have police support, should we need it, but it’s not planned to close down the road, or even go lights and sirens, those ambulances will just be doing a transport from one place to the next.”
Extra staff will be working all day since Intermountain Health will essentially be running two hospitals at the same time.
Bogenschutz said while the old hospital won’t accept admissions after 6 am, it’s imperative that staff is available there to care for patients who are waiting for transfer or can’t be transferred right away due to ongoing medical situations.
The old hospital will close to new admissions at 6 a.m., and all new hospital admissions will need to go to the new facility.
“Our caregivers on the day of the move will be informing us to when those patients should move based on how sick they are,” she said.
Bogenschutz said existing patients will not be billed for the hospital rides in between facilities, but patients who show up to the old facility once it’s closed could be billed if transport is needed to the open hospital.