Vail Health Facing Mounting Workforce, Financial Headwinds as it Continues to Grow Services
A Look Inside Vail Health’s Fiscal 2022, and the Challenges, Priorities, and Opportunities That Lay Ahead
Despite the challenges — and there have been challenges — of the past few years in health care, Vail Health is forging ahead.
“After three years of a pandemic, it’s time to emerge and try to get back to some sense of normalcy,” said Will Cook, Vail Health’s president and CEO, at the annual State of Vail Health on Tuesday, Feb. 7.
“Despite all the external headwinds and despite all the internal challenges, for all intents and purposes, I think it’s been a better year for us,” Cook said.
Some of the cited accomplishments included the opening of two new facilities (one in Summit County and one in Roaring Fork Valley); receiving the entitlements and breaking ground on the Precourt Healing Center (its 28-bed inpatient facility, expected to open in 2025); putting the finishing touches on the Wiegers Mental Health Clinic (which will offer intensive outpatient behavioral health programming); and starting work on an employee-housing site in Edwards.
Additionally, as Vail Health expands its services in neighboring Summit County, Chris Lindley, the executive director of Eagle Valley Behavioral Health and chief population officer for Vail Health, said it is working with the Summit County government to become its community mental health center.
Vail Health is working to create more pipelines to the healthcare industry. This includes an ongoing partnership with Colorado Mountain College as well as finding other ways to offer scholarship and internship opportunities to local high school students.