HealthOne adds to Denver presence with new Centennial hospital
HealthOne will open its first new hospital in 18 years on Monday, adding to the system’s large Denver area presence.
Centennial Hospital at 14200 E. Arapahoe Road was built atop a free-standing emergency department, and it’ll supplement a small collection of outpatient clinic buildings. The hospital itself will have 20 beds — 16 medical-surgical and four intensive care — but the facility’s chief administrative officer, Tyler Hood, said it could scale up to 100 beds and six floors.
The hospital itself, which Hood points out is several miles from similar facilities, will employ more than 80 people from the beginning, which Hood said will amount to $7 million in salary, wages and benefits this year. It cost $80 million to build.
Those outlying buildings have orthopedic, spinal, general surgery, oncology and OB/GYN services, spokespeople for the system said, as well as behavioral health resources.
Hood said the hospital has been in the works for five or six years, though construction began in March 2019. It will focus, at least at the beginning, on orthopedic and spinal surgeries, sports medicine, oncology, general surgery and women’s services. In addition to the standing OB/GYN services, HealthOne also has a breast center on the broader campus.
Hood described Centennial as a sort of satellite campus for the larger Medical Center of Aurora, which is larger and has more resources than its new little brother. He said this new facility may expand its services, though he couched that as contingent on community needs.
Centennial is HealthOne’s ninth hospital in Colorado, according to the system’s website. All but two of those are in the Denver metro area, with Centennial being the furthest from the city itself. It joins the abundant hospital ranks in the metro.
The decision to open Centennial, Hood said, was based on community need — those several miles separating Centennial from the other, nearest hospitals.
Earlier this month, staff bustled around the facility to prepare for the grand opening March 1. Nurses played patients as providers ran drills, and movers were still bringing in equipment. Hospital officials walked through the facility, showing off its rooms and post-operative wards. On the outside of those rooms were iPads, which officials said would include patients’ information for providers to read before entering the room. The hospital is part of the pilot program for that digital chart.