By Dallas Heltzell | BizWest / Prairie Mountain Media

PUBLISHED: January 25, 2026 at 6:51 AM MST

BOULDER — Boulder Community Health has submitted site-review plans to the city for a three-story, 29,630-square-foot addition to its existing hospital on the northeast corner of Arapahoe Avenue and Foothills Parkway.

The project would expand the Foothills Campus hospital’s existing emergency department, surgical services and number of patient rooms. It projects that site demolition and grading could begin late this year, and the first patients could be admitted to the newly expanded facility by 2028.

The proposal, submitted to the city for review in December, follows last summer’s completion of the Boulder Community Health Foundation’s $22 million Centennial Campaign, designed to provide long-term impact as the hospital system celebrated its 100th anniversary. It also comes amid substantial expansion of health care facilities throughout the region, including plans by UCHealth and AdventHealth for new hospitals west of Interstate 25’s interchange at Baseline Road.

Boulder Community Health’s existing three-story hospital at 4747 Arapahoe Ave. was originally built in 2003, and inpatient services were expanded in 2014.

“We are at or near capacity in our inpatient, surgery and emergency services,” said Dr. Robert Vissers, president and CEO of Boulder Community Health. “The volumes of growth we had experienced were historically 1% to 2% a year, but now some areas are 5% to 10%.”

According to the proposal, “since the COVID-19 pandemic, BCH has experienced a much higher demand for services, and patients have more-complex medical needs that are resource-intensive in addition to a general increased demand for services. Hospital admissions are growing at three to four times the historic rate, and surgeries have increased by over 10% the past two years.

“The ED and Surgical departments are often running at full capacity,” according to the proposal, “and the hospital is limited in its capacity to take on additional patients. There is a direct relationship between the capacity of the emergency department, surgical services and medical/surgical inpatient beds that requires all three departments to grow in a proportional way to support the demand and ultimately provide the best care possible to the community.”

BCH said the proposed design of the expansion would allow the main front door, emergency department entrance and “identity of the hospital” to remain as the community knows it, while consolidating the expansion to less-visible areas of the site to limit the impact to the hospital’s operations during construction and preserve the site’s remaining open area for varied expansion opportunities in the future.

“This expansion will be an extension of the quality of care that BCH prides itself on through their integrated care, use of cutting-edge technology and commitment to the community,” according to the site-review proposal.

“We have not yet put in the final plans for permitting,” Vissers said, adding that BCH also is refining the final cost estimate. “Some of that is dependent on the city requirements and our desire to meet all the environmental issues.”

Vissers said the Foothills expansion “should serve us at least for the next 10 years,” but added that he expects continued growth in outpatient services. “We don’t have any more plans to add hospitals, but I think we’ll see more of a shift to outpatient and ambulatory care, and surgeries that can take place in surgery centers.”

He said he also expects BCH to expand services in Erie and Lafayette.

The proposed addition would expand the Foothills campus’ hospital directly off of the east face of the existing emergency department and fill in a portion of the third floor at the north end. The eastern addition would fill in the courtyard space that currently exists between the hospital and the two-story, 23-year-old Reynolds Medical Office building to the east and the existing parking garage to the north.

On the first floor, the existing emergency department would expand to the east and north, but still maintain its existing entrance that is visible from the south facade. A new weather-protection canopy would be added to a modified drop-off loop, and the department’s waiting and reception areas would be expanded. The expansion would also add improved triage flow, more conference space for staff and an enclosed circulation path for visitors parking in the garage.

The expansion of the emergency department at the north end of the building also would establish a new secured behavioral-health unit and staff support spaces.

Expansion of surgical services on the second floor would include four new operating rooms, plus staff and storage space.

A portion of the third-floor expansion would provide three new medical-surgical inpatient rooms, sleep rooms and other nursing support spaces. The third floor also would expand northward, adding 13 more patient rooms without increasing the building’s footprint because it would primarily be constructed atop an existing roof area.

This article was first published by BizWest, an independent news organization, and is published under a license agreement. © 2026 BizWest Media LLC. You can view the original here: Boulder Community Health plans hospital expansion