New HRRMC CEO outlines $30M–$32M campus expansions, $10M EHR project and fundraising plans

John Tucker, the new chief executive officer at Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center, told Chaffee County leaders the hospital is planning multiple capital projects and is monitoring uncertainty in federal Medicaid funding.

Tucker said the hospital’s board has voted to pursue a front‑of‑hospital expansion estimated at about $10,000,000 and a back‑of‑hospital expansion of roughly $10,000,000–$12,000,000 to enlarge surgery, imaging and materials‑management space. Separately, he said an electronic health record (EHR) modernization is expected to cost about $10,000,000. Tucker also described a foundation application to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) for a PET/CT scanner that he said costs about $1,700,000.

The hospital faces “caution” as it tracks possible federal Medicaid funding reductions. “Medicaid is primarily the target of kind of these reductions in federal spending,” Tucker said,…