New UCHealth Emergency Room is now open in Fort Collins

Facility also houses 24/7 outpatient laboratory and pharmacy services
Oct. 30, 2015
An emergency room nurse carefully goes through a checklist in the resuscitation room at the new UCHealth Emergency Room in Fort Collins on the morning of Oct 30, the opening day. The emergency room features 12 spacious exam rooms for emergency care as well as a diagnostic imaging department that offers CT, X-ray and ultrasound services.

The new UCHealth Emergency Room in southeast Fort Collins officially opened its doors to patients this morning.

The new facility is located on the southeast corner of the intersection of Harmony Road and Snow Mesa Drive in southeast Fort Collins. In addition to emergency care, the facility features 24/7 outpatient laboratory services and a retail pharmacy.

The UCHealth Emergency Room is staffed by technicians, nurses and advanced care practitioners with specialized emergency medicine training; pharmacists; imaging experts; laboratory scientists; and board-certified doctors from Emergency Physicians of the Rockies. In addition, the facility is a second northern Colorado site for UCHealth’s Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program, which has nurses specially trained to care for rape victims and collect forensic evidence.

The 17,400-square-foot facility has been in the works since April, when crews officially broke ground at the site on the southeast corner of the intersection of Harmony Road and Snow Mesa Drive.
In addition to an emergency room that can handle any medical emergency, the facility houses an outpatient laboratory and retail pharmacy. Both of these services are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which is a first for this area of the city.

Kevin Unger, president and CEO of UCHealth’s Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins and Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, said every detail of the new facility was thoughtfully designed to offer easy access, comfort, short wait times and high quality care for residents in southern Fort Collins and surrounding areas.

A service of PVH, the facility will be staffed by technicians, nurses and advanced care practitioners with specialized emergency medicine training; pharmacists; imaging experts; laboratory scientists; and board-certified doctors from Emergency Physicians of the Rockies, an independent group that has served northern Colorado for more than 40 years and also provides ER physicians for PVH, MCR and Greeley Emergency and Surgery Center.

Patients with minor illnesses and injuries — such as headaches, lacerations requiring a few stitches, minor burns, sprains, strains, possible broken bones, sore throats, coughs, ear infections, fever and flu symptoms — will still be able to receive care at UCHealth Urgent Care on the Harmony Campus. The urgent care clinic, located about two blocks west of the site for the new center, is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week.

The new ER will be the better choice for patients who have severe abdominal pain, major fractures or dislocations, head injuries or a sudden, severe headache or loss of vision, overdose or attempted suicide, serious lacerations, severe bleeding or poisoning.

People should always call 911 if they are experiencing chest pain or other heart attack symptoms.