The University of Colorado community and the public will celebrate the grand opening of the Anschutz Centers for Advanced Medicine today. The building, which will house all outpatient clinics of the University of Colorado Hospital, is the first new building of the new University of Colorado Health Sciences Center campus at Fitzsimons.
Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony that will include staff, faculty and patients in the celebration, public tours of the state-of-the-art facility are scheduled to continue throughout the day and on Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.
"Today marks the beginning of a new era in health care in Colorado," said Dennis Brimhall, president and chief executive officer of the University of Colorado Hospital and vice chancellor for Fitzsimons at the CU-Health Sciences Center. "We have a unique opportunity to reinvent how we deliver care to the citizens of Colorado, the region and the nation as we move forward in building a world-class health facility for the 21st century."
The Anschutz Centers for Advanced Medicine includes the Anschutz Outpatient Pavilion and Anschutz Cancer Pavilion, and will be connected to the future Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Institute and a new Inpatient Pavilion. An accelerated plan was announced last week that, if approved, would call for the new inpatient pavilion to be built within two years.
The Outpatient Pavilion will encompass a complete range of patient-centered dental, medical, nursing and pharmacy services from primary and specialty outpatient care to outpatient ambulatory surgery and recovery, complete state-of-the-art diagnostic capabilitie and an extended-stay program, in addition to education and other patient-focused support.
The Cancer Pavilion will offer outpatient care for all types of cancer and will house cancer prevention and early detection programs, radiation oncology and the CU Cancer Center's clinical research program.
Clinics will relocate from the East Ninth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard location to the 476,000 gross-square-feet Outpatient Pavilion in a phased move, two floors at a time, through March. The 106,000 gross-square-feet Cancer Pavilion is completely occupied.
The Anschutz Centers for Advanced Medicine was named for a $25 million donation from the Anschutz Foundation to support the hospital's programs at the Fitzsimons campus. Construction of the Cancer Pavilion was funded in part by $10.6 million from the State of Colorado. Project costs were $119 million for the Outpatient Pavilion and $28.7 million for the Cancer Pavilion.
These outpatient buildings are just the beginning of the development of the new CU-Health Sciences Center and University of Colorado Hospital campus at Fitzsimons. By 2010, the Fitzsimons campus will consist of more than 3 million gross square feet of educational, research, clinical and support space. Total cost for this first phase of campus development is estimated at $1.3 billion.
In the near future, construction will begin for other buildings and programs at the Fitzsimons site, including a 600,000 gross-square-feet research complex and other programs, including a Native American health and Telehealth/TeleEducation facility, and education facilities. Construction is nearly complete on a library archive facility. For more information on Fitzsimons, visit the website at http://www.uchsc.edu/fitzsimons.
University of Colorado Hospital is the Rocky Mountain region's only academic tertiary care and referral center, and has been recognized as one of America's best hospitals, according to U.S. News & World Report. Located in Denver, Colo., the hospital is part of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center campus, one of four campuses in the University of Colorado system.
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