News

Vail Valley Medical Center Opens New Intensive Care Unit

VAIL CO—After four months of remodeling Vail Valley Medical Center's new Intensive Care Unit (ICU) opened to patients last week.

The completion of this project is a milestone in the hospital's Master Facility Plan which began in August 2015 with the goal of making Eagle County a center of medical excellence in the region and improving the healthcare available to the community and its guests.

“The new Intensive Care Unit is a beautiful highly functional space for our most critically injured or ill patients and their families” explained VVMC President and CEO Doris Kirchner. “This is an important step in improving our facility to better serve the community.”

The renovation provides five brand new state-of-the-art ICU patient rooms that have been designed with patient-centered care and safety as a priority. To this end the rooms are positioned directly off of a centralized nurse station. In addition the new space provides more efficient work areas for VVMC's entire care team including space for medication preparation and quick access to medical supplies.

The Master Facility Plan which is broken into two phases to ensure uninterrupted care throughout construction includes the new ICU as well as an upgrade to the Patient Care Unit and a new state-of-the-art Emergency Department. In addition the community will benefit from a relocated helipad on the campus increased parking additional space for physician groups and a new main entrance off S. Frontage Road. Construction of the first phase the west wing is scheduled to be complete in 2017 at which point the second phase will begin in earnest and the entire project will be complete in 2020.

About Vail Valley Medical Center
Founded in 1965 VVMC has grown into one of the world's most advanced mountain healthcare systems providing 24/7 emergency care Olympic-quality sports medicine evidence-based research modern cancer care and extensive cardiology services. An independent nonprofit medical center VVMC keeps nearly 900 jobs and resources local better serving our community and visitors. Providing superior health services with compassion and exceptional outcomes VVMC offers low infection rates free community services and top-rated patient satisfaction scores.