Denver Health and Hospital Authority (DHHA) Outpatient Medical Center (OMC)

The Outpatient Medical Center is a 293,000 square foot state-of-the-art medical facility at the center of the DHHA’s main campus that was developed to consolidate and significantly expand disparate medical labs, clinics, and outpatient facilities. The centralized services within the OMC include, Radiology, Laboratories, Pharmacies, Surgery, Behavioral Health, a FQHC Primary Care Clinic, Pediatrics, Women’s Care, Physical Therapy, Dental, ENT, Ophthalmology, and Central Processing.

The overall Project included the construction of the building, all tenant buildout for DHHA, as well as the purchase of a significant amount of Furniture, Fixtures, and Equipment (FF&E) necessary to operate the OMC. The NMTC Loans were used to finance a portion of the Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment to be installed at the Project.

Denver Health’s OMC facility received broad City and public support.  Residents voted and passed “Elevate Denver” a 10-year $937 million bond, of which $75.0 million was set aside for the OMC facility.  The Denver Health Outpatient Medical Center will allow Denver Health to expand outpatient care delivery to approximately 285,000 patients annually (840,000 patient visits) and augment quality and efficiency of care.

Investment Type
Project financing included $19.75 million in New Markets Tax Credit allocation, of which RUGF provided $6.5 million, Corporation for Supportive Housing provided $8.25 million, and Colorado Growth and Revitalization provided $5.0 million. JP Morgan Chase Bank was the NMTC investor. 

Market
The project site is part of the City of Denver’s La Alma/Lincoln Park Neighborhood in Denver, Colorado.  At the time of investment, this Project neighborhood had a median family income of 56.7% of statewide/metropolitan area incomes, a Poverty Rate of 25%, and a federally designated medically underserved area.  

DHHA serves more than twice the number of Medicaid, Medicare and uninsured patients than the rest of the hospitals in the State.  DHHA provides high quality care and handles more than 100,000 emergency calls and transporting 70,000 patients annually as the medical response team for the 911 system of the City.  A City of Denver Feasibility Study projected that without the new facility, DHHA would run out of room in its current facilities for specialty care by 2020 and primary care by 2021 and that 110,000 appointment requests would be denied each year as a result of over demand of healthcare needs.

With the NMTC Investment, the DHHA OMC facility will serve approximately 850,000-1,000,000 patient visits annually (patient visits assume each patient has between 2.9-3.5 visits per year based on DHHA’s current statistics), 71% of which are anticipated to be uninsured or on Medicaid, Medicare and 70% of which are expected to identify as minorities.

Community Impact
At full capacity and operations, it is projected that there will be 924.4 FTE (full-time equivalent) staff working at the Project and who will all receive above living wage pay for Denver County. Permanent positions will be provided to all skill levels and at least 40% of FTE’s are anticipated to be filled by minorities. In addition, all full-time and part-time employees working a minimum of 20 hours per week will receive a full benefits package including medical, dental, vision, life and short-term and long-term disability insurance. Employees will also receive vacation, sick days, 401K, and education benefits. 

The new OMC will increase cost efficiencies and expand DHHA’s capacity to serve even more low-income patients while reducing the use of the Emergency Department usage, further lowering costs and improving outcomes, due to an advanced team-based approach of care. The development is anticipated to increase the patients served at DHHA’s OMC by 21%, and will allow DHHA to operate integrated specialty outpatient services and expand its services to high health need populations.

Referral relationships will be expanded at the OMC that will allow supportive housing providers to refer residents to the OMC for specialty care. Through the OMC, DHHA will be the sole provider of specialty care to individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness and will employ patient navigators to help connect vulnerable patients to the services they need.

Developer/Sponsor
Denver Health and Hospital Authority operates the Denver Health System, which was founded as the City Hospital in 1860 and is now owned and operated by the DHHA. Today, DHHA provides medical care to nearly one-third of Denver’s population, serving as Denver’s safety-net hospital and the largest health care provider to uninsured and underinsured patients in Colorado.

DHHA is one of the largest employers in the City of Denver with a workforce of more than 6,400 FTE employees. Providers and staff have been recognized for innovation and success in improving medical practices, included a national award by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services for excellence in person and family engagement. As a teaching institution, DHHA has a clinical training facility for students who are pursuing 34 different health professions and is an education partner with the University of Colorado School Of Medicine. DHHA also operates CareerConnect, which works with Denver Public Schools’ students to become successful health care industry professionals. DHHA is an experienced healthcare operator with an in-house facility project management team that has completed nearly $1 billion of capital projects over the past 20 years. As a comprehensive, integrated organization, DHHA provides healthcare to the City of Denver’s most vulnerable community members, regardless of ability to pay and promotes continuity of care to improve health outcomes for its most vulnerable patients.

Investor
JP Morgan Chase Bank was the Investor in this project.