Montezuma County Receives Funding for Hospital Modernization

January 13, 2016 1850 Views Kym Best, Melburg & Rossetto, Western U.S.

CORTEZ, Colo. — Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez is planning a $14.2 million capital improvement project that will build an ambulance garage and will expand to include a new inpatient wing.

In late December, Montezuma County Hospital District was awarded a $2 million grant from the Department of Local Affairs for Energy and Mineral Impact to be used on the project, according to Southwest Health System. The grant will help construct a state-of-the-art inpatient wing to provide a higher level of health care, according to the Southwest Health System.

“The grant was awarded based on a variety of factors such as its connection to energy impact, degree of need, measurable outcomes, amount of requests, relationship to community goals, level of local match, community support, management capacity and readiness to go,” said Haley Leonard, a hospital spokeswoman, in a statement.

The construction will also consolidate the Southwest Medical Group Clinics to offer more office space for the recruitment of new providers and specialists as well as making improvements to the emergency services facility at the 25-bed, critical access hospital.

Montezuma County emphasized the need for the expansion and facility upgrades to modernize the county’s health care in a sales tax campaign initiative, and in November, county voters approved the request for a limited sales and use tax by a 3-2 margin to update the currently aging facility, according to the Durango Herald.

Health care officials announced that they plan to apply for a USDA loan to pay for approximately $6.6 million of the Southwest Memorial Hospital project, said the Durango Herald. Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Nunn Construction was chosen as the construction manager and is working on the pricing and estimates for the project. Davis Architects, based in Denver, is working as the architect on the project and is in the early design phase of a physician clinic space and has nearly completed the design for the inpatient wing.