Vail Health Community Leaves Its Mark on East Wing Expansion

More than 800 community members, including benefactors, construction workers, employees, patients, volunteers and others grabbed colorful markers to autograph a special steel beam that will be part of the east wing expansion.

The beam-signing sessions took place Oct. 7-9 in the Vail Health Hospital’s main lobby. The steel beam is painted white, 19 feet long, weighs 600 pounds and will be installed in the secondary stairwell of the new helipad.

Onsite Helipad Saves Critical Time
Currently, a patient must be loaded into an ambulance and driven the short distance from the hospital to a helipad that is located on a Colorado Department of Transportation-owned site. A patient transfer to a helicopter can take between 20 and 60 minutes and exposes a patient to “transfer risks,” including disconnecting and reconnecting that patient from whatever monitors or intravenous lines he or she requires.

The east wing expansion, which is scheduled to open in late-2020, includes plans for a new onsite helipad that would allow patients to be taken directly from the hospital to the helicopter. Learn more about Vail Health’s Master Facility Plan.