Penrose Community Will Stay Open for Nonemergency Cases Until It’s Sold
By Debbie Kelley, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo.
May 20–Treatment for strep throat, cuts, broken bones, ear infections and other ailments that aren’t life-threatening will be available at Penrose Community Hospital after its replacement, St. Francis Medical Center, opens in August.
One of 12 Colorado hospitals managed by Centura Health, Penrose Community had been slated to close simultaneously with the opening of the system’s new hospital. But until the 217,000-square-foot building and 15 acres at 3205 N. Academy Blvd. are sold, the site will operate as an urgent-care center after mid-August, said Johnny Rea, spokesman for Penrose-St. Francis Health Services.
Centura soon will complete a listing agreement with a third-party broker for Penrose Community. A few interested parties have looked at the building, he said, but there have been no takers.
The property will be listed at “fair market value,” Rea said, declining to give an asking price.
Meanwhile, Centura — which also operates Penrose hospital north of downtown — continues to search for a permanent location for an urgent-care clinic along the North Academy Boulevard corridor.
“There’s clearly a need for an urgentcare facility in that area,” Rea said, “and we’re committed to serve that area.”
Officials have said they want a new site because the 108-bed Penrose Community is too large for only urgent-care operations in the long-term, and Penrose-St. Francis intends to use profits from the sale to help offset the $207 million cost of the new hospital.
Penrose Community’s emergency department sees about 40,000 patients a year, and about 80 percent of those cases are classified as nonemergency, Rea said.
The emergency department and all other services offered at Penrose Community will move to the new St. Francis Medical Center on the southeast corner of Woodmen Road and Powers Boulevard.
Penrose Community’s 600 employees will move to the new hospital beginning Aug. 12. Rea said an additional 77 employees are in the process of being hired to staff St. Francis Medical Center.
Services for the 156-bed facility will include a full-time emergency department, a critical care unit, a birthing center and neonatal intensive care unit, surgery and others.
Many of the job openings are in the new critical care unit, and include nurses and other nursing staff.
Workers for environmental services, nutrition services and facilities also are being hired.
The 350,000-square-foot St. Francis Medical Center will begin seeing patients on Aug. 18, Rea said. A public open house, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 9, will feature tours of the new building, health care education, interactive wellness displays, entertainment, demonstrations and other events.
The urgent-care clinic at Penrose Community will be open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. It will be housed in the current emergency department.
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0235 or debbie.kelley@gazette.com
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