Northern Colorado’s not-for-profit hospice provider Pathways will vacate its inpatient center at Banner McKee Medical Center by the end of the year as it prepares to open its own 12-bed inpatient care center on its Fort Collins campus in early summer next year.
Pathways’ lease for the six-bed unit at McKee, which has been home to the Pathways Hospice Care Center for over 20 years, expires December 31, 2021. “We had hoped to extend the lease one final time to have a seamless transition,” said Pathways President Nate Lamkin, “and we were disappointed with Banner Health’s decision, but we anticipated and had been planning for this possibility.”
Beginning January 1, 2022, Pathways is partnering with Columbine Health System to provide inpatient level hospice care at Lemay Avenue Nursing & Rehabilitation in Fort Collins until the new freestanding inpatient care center opens in early summer 2022. “Pathways is grateful to Columbine Health and the team at Lemay Avenue for working with us to ensure that the community has uninterrupted access to inpatient hospice beds,” stated Lamkin.
“We look forward to the opening of our own state-of-the-art, freestanding Inpatient Care Center. By late spring or early summer of 2022, we will offer inpatient care at a home-like facility that we are building as an investment in the future of hospice care in the region for generations to come,” Lamkin said.
This past September, the 19th Annual A Vintage Affair, presented by Wilbur’s Total Beverage, raised $118,000 for Pathways’ under-construction Inpatient Care Center.
“The community support for Pathways is amazing — our neighbors are helping us to serve Northern Colorado families for years to come,” Lamkin said.
The Inpatient Care Center is rising next to the main Pathways campus at 305 Carpenter Road in Fort Collins.
Demand for hospice beds continues to outstrip availability. The six-bed hospice unit at McKee Medical Center was full one out of every four days in 2020, demonstrating the need for a larger, freestanding facility.