New Leadville hospital awaits word on loan

Lake County’s only hospital, St. Vincent in Leadville, has put plans to build a new facility on hold after financial projections came up shorter than expected, indicating the small hospital has recovered from the financial brink but needs to improve its balance sheet before a much-needed building upgrade.

In 2014, the hospital announced it would be shutting down because of critical building repairs and declining revenues, but service cuts and a partnership struck several months later with Centura Health — which also runs St. Anthony Summit Medical Center in Frisco — kept the 138-year-old hospital open.

Under the new arrangement, St. Vincent cut staffing from 152 employees to about 72 and eliminated costly services, including long-term care and home health. Last August, the hospital announced its plans to build a new facility.

On Friday, however, St. Vincent announced in a news release that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has “paused” — but not rejected — a loan for the new building, citing “the hospital’s slower than anticipated financial turnaround.”

Paul Chodkowski, CEO of both St. Anthony and St. Vincent, said that belt-tightening has shored up the hospital’s finances, but the USDA nonetheless wants to see the numbers improve over the next several months before re-evaluating the loan.