HCA HealthONE Rose seeks zoning change for health park and freestanding emergency department at 30th & Wadsworth

HCA HealthONE Rose representatives asked the Wheat Ridge City Council on March 3 to reconsider the city's 2018 prohibition on freestanding emergency departments and to allow a physician-staffed freestanding emergency department as part of a larger health park at the northwest corner of 30th Avenue and Wadsworth.

Casey Goober, president and CEO for HCA HealthONE Rose, told council the system is offering a plan that would place a freestanding ED and medical office space on a city-owned shopping-center parcel. Goober said HCA has an existing letter of intent for roughly 5.5 acres at that corner, and described the project as a "health park" combining a freestanding ED with specialty outpatient services. He said the freestanding ED would be physician-staffed and estimated the facility would handle roughly 15 to 30 ED visits per day. Goober argued the site would restore local access for many Wheat Ridge residents after Lutheran Hospital moved west and said, "I'm asking for the opportunity for choice in terms of health care."

Why this matters: the city adopted a moratorium and later a code prohibition in 2018 amid concerns…