Publisher's Letter
Welcome to our 5th annual Loveland/Greeley Medical and Wellness Magazine & Directory. We are honored to collaborate with the Banner Health organization and the outstanding senior management, administrators, physicians and staff of both McKee Medical Center and North Colorado Medical Center...
» READ MORE
Advances in Healthcare
By Graciela Sholander
McKee Medical Center and North Colorado Medical Center pride themselves in staying on the cutting edge of new technology. Our cover article about the latest da Vinci robot is evidence of that claim. Throughout 2009, the two medical centers have made other advances and paved the way for specialized care in several hospital departments. Here is a sampling of some of the projects completed last year.
 |
NCMC New Endovascular Suite
NCMC’s new Endovascular Suite opened in 2009. The suite will be used for minimally invasive endovascular procedures and open surgeries. Combining the best features of two departments into one room ensures patients have the safest care and treatment possible.
Minimally invasive procedures can often be done in a cath lab and require shorter hospital stays. However, there are instances, such as open heart surgery, that physicians must access larger vessels. The Endovascular Suite combines the needs of the two in one facility: a cath lab and a sterile operating room.
“No other hospital has what we do in our Endovascular Suite,” according to Rick Sutton, chief executive officer at NCMC. Only two facilities in Colorado have a similar suite. NCMC, says Sutton, examined the two and “took the best of what the others had and brought it together here.”
The Suite also gives NCMC the ability to tackle new surgical techniques as they receive FDA approval. One such technique is heart valve replacement surgery.
 |
McKee Medical Center New 64-Slice Scanner
In October 2009, McKee acquired an advanced diagnostic imaging system that offers greater image quality and can reduce radiation to patients by up to 40 percent. The LightSpeed® VCT XTe from GE Healthcare is a 64-slice computed tomography (CT) scanner that provides a higher level of diagnostic certainty to McKee’s physicians.
The advanced technology of the 64-slice scanner can be especially beneficial to children and young adults who are more sensitive to radiation exposure. The scanner is also helpful in producing more reliable in-depth brain and cardiac scans.
Simulation Center
The McKee Medical Center Foundation has raised $628,000 to date in support of the Banner Simulation Center at McKee. Construction began Dec. 14 on the first phase of the project which will include two simulation teaching rooms, two driver work stations where staff members control the mannequins, a temporary debriefing room and storage. Completion of this phase is expected by spring 2010.
By first quarter 2011, McKee officials hope to complete Phase II, which will include two additional simulation teaching rooms, two driver work stations, a virtual reality room and additional storage.
The Simulation Center will provide physicians and nurses invaluable training, especially for those high-risk, low-volume procedures that medical staff rarely has the opportunity to perform. Mannequins provide real-time responses to the procedures administered, with instantaneous feedback. After a training exercise, students can review the procedure and outcome and, if need be, repeat the process.
 |
NCMC - Western States Burn Center Expands
In April 2009, NCMC opened the expanded Western States Burn Center. The center increased from 2,500 to 12,000 square feet and grew from four to 10 patient rooms. The new rooms are larger, provide a visiting room for family members and allow the patient to use the same room from the initial critical stage of care until they are ready to leave the hospital.
Other improvements include positive pressure rooms to protect patients from outside infections and negative pressure rooms that protect the environment from patients with infectious diseases. The addition of state-of-the-art technology, from special monitoring equipment to lifts for moving patients, provides a higher level of care. A rehabilitation gym helps complete the full spectrum of care with physical and occupational therapy.
The state-of-the-art burn center supports a vast area, from Colorado and Kansas to the Canadian border. They also provide outreach and education and have two nationally known burn surgeons on staff.
 |
NCMC - Endoscopy Center Expansion
NCMC’s Endoscopy Center also received an upgrade in April 2009, taking it to the “Cadillac level,” according to Sutton. The center increased from nine to 17 recovery rooms.
New design features include walls between rooms to improve patient privacy, rather than curtains, and increased space to handle new technology, such as the SpyGlass Direct Visualization System. An additional procedure room allows the center to also provide for interventional gastroenterology and pulmonology endoscopic procedures.
The center also provides services for colonoscopies, endoscopic ultrasound and advanced pancreato-biliary services.
 |
McKee Medical Center - Renovated Interfaith Chapel
McKee Medical Center Foundation brought many individuals and businesses together to raise more than $250,000 towards renovation of McKee’s interfaith chapel. The eight-year process finally came to fruition on Oct. 7, when they began construction to expand the chapel to accommodate 24 people by expanding into vacant space on McKee’s first floor. Previously, the chapel could only hold eight individuals at one time.
The new chapel has a nature theme, with stained glass and window panels created by local artists, designed to make the space appropriate for meditation, quiet and worship by persons of all faiths. Construction of the project was completed near the end of December, with the stained glass panels scheduled to be installed in mid-February. +
Graciela Sholander is a Fort Collins-based writer and author of Dream It Do It, www.dreamitdoit.net.