Healthcare
Platte Valley Medical Center
Platte Valley Medical Center opened a new $138 million regional medical facility July 10 on a 50-acre campus just west of I-76 between 144th Avenue and Bromley Lane, at 1600 Prairie Center Parkway. It is one of the metro area's only community-owned hospitals, founded in 1960 by Brighton residents and governed by a community board. It serves the communities of Brighton, Lochbuie, Ft. Lupton, Commerce City, Thornton, Henderson, Hudson and Keenesberg.
The new facility is a jewel on the plains, featuring a four-story, lighted, stainless steel spire that serves as a nighttime beacon to Interstate 76 travelers. 
Three, three-story buildings encompassing nearly 300,000 square feet were built in the project's first phase. The interconnected buildings include a 78-bed patient tower, a diagnostic and treatment hospital building, a medical office building and an 11,000 square-foot central utility plant.
The medical center’s new Medical Imaging Department offers one of the world's highest combined levels of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and CT (computed tomography) imaging, with new features that enhance both patient comfort and image accuracy.
Platte Valley is the first hospital outside of Japan to install a Toshiba Vantage MRI with Atlas upgrade. The system provides the latest magnetic resonance imaging capability available in the U.S. today. The hospital will serve as a showcase for Toshiba, with health care professionals from throughout the nation flying into Denver International Airport to preview the new technology. Read More
Facts and Features
- Platte Valley has Colorado's most comprehensive, fully integrated wireless hospital system. It features wireless patient monitoring from anywhere in the hospital, immediate wireless access to patient information, an advanced nurse-call system, facilitation of pager and cell phone communications among health care professionals, and WiFi internet access for patients and visitors.
- It is the first in the nation to house Toshiba's newest MRI imaging process. The hospital also will have a 64-slice CT scanner.
- Colorado’s only Special Care Nursery houses private rooms for at-risk and premature babies, complete with in-room accommodations for parents. The Level II Special Care Nursery will be staffed around the clock by neonatal nurse practitioners through an arrangement with The Children’s Hospital.
- Future phases could add three more stories and 222 more beds over the next several decades. The long-term master plan for the medical campus includes a second patient bed tower, expanded hospital services building and at least two additional medical office buildings
- The new Emergency Department can accommodate 32,000 visits annually, a 60 percent increase from operating volumes at the old facility in 2006.
- A Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory will open at the new hospital this fall, expanding cardiovascular service