FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Kids can get a little TLC for their favorite stuffed animals or dolls at a special Teddy Bear Hospital event at the new UCHealth Emergency Room in southeast Fort Collins.

Parents and children alike will be able to learn about being healthy, staying safe and preventing injuries at the free event from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Oct. 24. Children are invited to bring their own teddy bear or doll to see how emergency room doctors and nurses care for injured or sick patients during a pretend emergency visit.

“Teddy Bear Hospital is a great way for children to experience an emergency room without the fear of being in an actual emergency,” said Dr. James Campain, medical director of the new UCHealth Emergency Room on the southeast corner of the intersection of Snow Mesa Drive and Harmony Road. “It’s also an opportunity for families to get a peek inside the new facility.”

The 17,400-square-foot facility is expected to open in late October or early November.

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 30 years and provides ER physicians for PVH, MCR and Greeley Emergency and Surgery Center.

In addition to an emergency room that can handle any medical emergency, the facility will house an outpatient laboratory and retail pharmacy. Both of these services will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which is a first for this area of the city.

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.