Conejos County Hospital celebrates grand re-opening in style

The ribbon cutting for the Conejos County Hospital (CCH) was done June 22 by Dr. Donna Nelson, emergency room director, surrounded by the staff of the hospital.

LA JARA — It was a grand day in La Jara for a grand re-opening of a local institution. The grand re-opening of the Conejos County Hospital (CCH).

The all-day event started with the landing of the new REACH helicopter out of Salida, followed by speeches and culminating with tours of the facility and a barbeque that raised money for the San Luis Valley Health Foundation.

Kelly Gallegos, Conejos County Hospital administrator, told the crowd that three years ago there was just a dream of remodeling a portion of the hospital that would include a coat of paint, new cabinets and maybe some new floor tiling. However, as she was walking around the facility with Konnie Martin, SLV Health chief executive officer, Martin asked: “What do you really want?”

With that Gallegos said having the ER and admissions on opposite sides of the building were inconvenient, there was a need to improve security especially at night, and the need to give patients and visitors additional space while in the ER. Not to mention giving the hospital a prominent “storefront to let the community we were open and here to serve them.”

Martin challenged the Gallegos and the CCH staff to “dream big” and gave Gallegos permission to meet with an architect and project manager to develop that dream and put it on paper.

Backing the project was the Board of Trustees and the Foundation who said that if Gallegos could figure out a way to pay for the project from operating funds to “go for it and get this done.” They also provided unwavering support for the project, she added.

The project included redoing the roof, replacing the emergency backup generator and renovating the fire detection and suppression system. The hospital worked with 40 different vendors and two-thirds were local, Gallegos said. “We invested over $6 million to the facility and into the community,” she stated.

“This began as a dream to provide quality health care…[but] this is a project to ensure health care into the future,” Gallegos stated.

Also speaking during the ceremony was Dr. Donna Nelson, emergency room director, who assured the crowd, many of whom had been born in the hospital, that when friends, family or neighbors need emergency care “we are here.”

CCH is a certified Level IV Trauma facility and can provide basic 24-hour ER facilities along with advanced life support prior to transferring patients to a higher-level trauma center if needed and can provide evaluation, stabilization and diagnostic services (including a laboratory onsite) for injured patients.

Nelson said she would “rather see you in the market or at the gas station, but we don’t always have the option. So be assured, we are here if you need us.”

Brian Jackson, a physicians assistant, said that the upgrade to the facility is only to the shell of the building. “It’s the people that make [the hospital] work. The nurses are the heartbeat” and the ancillary services the veins.


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