Animas Surgical Hospital in Durango Colorado Spine Specialist

Sun, Aug xix, 2022 9:00 Updated Sunday, Aug. 19, 2022 eleven:24

'We're bursting at the seams'

Animas Surgical Infirmary is planning to open a 73,125-square-pes expansion and a two-level parking garage in the autumn of 2022.

Courtesy of Capital Growth Medvest

Animas Surgical Infirmary'southward trouble would make many businesses envious: It's growing so fast it needs a 73,125-foursquare-foot expansion.

A second edifice, an convalescent surgical eye, is in the works, currently going through the city'southward blessing procedure, with a last plan set to go before the Durango City Council on Tuesday.

"We're bursting at the seams, and that speaks to our success," said Karis Morrall, marketing coordinator for ASH.

ASH, a for-turn a profit surgical hospital center, plans to consolidate almost of its outpatient services and add space for a surgical facility in a new, three-story building. In addition, the building will comprise space for additional leased medical offices and a retail pharmacy.

Cost estimates for the new building have not been released.

Eye surgery and ear, nose and throat procedures would be moved to the new edifice, assuasive for modifications of the existing ASH facility to better efficiency.

Morrall said it is too early on to determine how many new employees will be hired, and employees volition likely work in both buildings. ASH currently has a iii-to-1 patient-nurse ratio.

Brett Gosney, CEO of Animas Surgical Hospital, said, "We take increased our inpatient and outpatient services and have attracted top medical talent to our community, all while operating at or near chapters. This expansion volition allow us to serve our patients into the hereafter by providing boosted access to quality care and advancing the region as a wellness care destination."

The addition volition include a two-level parking garage that volition add 328 spaces and an additional xxx parking spots outside the parking structure.

Currently, ASH has 82 affiliated adviser providers, who are physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners. In 2004, when the surgical hospital kickoff opened, it had 30 affiliated adviser providers. In 2017, ASH had 160 staff members compared with 35 staff members when information technology opened in 2004.

Surgery Partners, a publicly traded visitor, is the majority owner of Animas Surgical Infirmary. ASH also has 17 dr. investors.

Upper-case letter Growth Medvest owns the real estate and is programmer of the new edifice.

Many ASH physicians operate satellite offices in Farmington, Pagosa Springs, Montrose and even further abroad, and Morrall said the facility has become a regional surgical hub.

A number of Amish visitors recently seen on Durango's streets are coming as patients of Dr. Andrew Cook, an endometriosis specialist who splits his practice between Durango and Los Gatos, California, said Lizette Langefels, manager of outpatient services.

"We're seeing people travel to Durango for procedures considering they want to be in a small-town atmosphere. We're attracting people from Albuquerque and Denver to have procedures done hither," Morrall said.

Mercy Regional Medical Center also is adapting to meet an aging population and is also seeing patients come from farther away, said Mercy spokesman David Bruzzese.

Patients at Spine Colorado, which operates out of Mercy, are an example of patients traveling to Durango with recuperation specifically in mind, Bruzzese said. As a bully walking city, he added, Durango is platonic for spine patients, who are frequently prescribed walks as part of their recovery.

Julie Lonborg, vice president of communications with the Colorado Hospital Association, said economic tensions between for-profit hospitals and nonprofits are a situation seen throughout the country.

As a nonprofit, total-service infirmary, Mercy also has a trickier financial balancing deed than ASH considering information technology must subsidize medical procedures such as 24-hour emergency room operation, intensive care, nephrology and endocrinology, disciplines that don't pay for themselves.

According to the "The Financial Health of Colorado Hospital, Trends 2011-15" written report, the latest available, Mercy operated with an 8.xv percentage total profit margin compared with 19.seven percentage for ASH in 2015.

Also in 2015, Mercy incurred $807,897 in bad debt compared with $309,902 for ASH, and Mercy reported near $1.20 million in charity intendance compared with $v,000 for ASH.

"Mercy is required to provide emergency service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a twelvemonth," Lonborg said.

"They have to be ready to practise this, and there certainly is a cost for that."

Animas Surgical Hospital'due south conclusion to aggrandize, she said, would accept come just after exhaustive market place research to ensure demand would support its investment.

Even so, she said whenever a medical facility expands, a frequent business organization arises, especially in small markets, about whether need is in place to back up it.

"When you make a decision to invest in an expansion of a surgical facility, there is a lot of expense to that," she said.

"You don't make that decision lightly, and hopefully, they (ASH) have done the piece of work and identified an unmet need and they are not cannibalizing existing demand."

If approvals from the city are obtained and construction goes as planned, Morrall said ASH is expected to begin structure this fall, with eventual opening of the new edifice planned for fall 2022.

parmijo@durangoherald.com