A hospital based in Leadville, Colorado on Wednesday disclosed it ran into financial trouble, hinting it faced certain closure if not for local, state and federal partners helping to avert the financial calamity.
"Last week, St. Vincent Health was facing an extreme financial crisis," Kathryn Fry, St. Vincent Health's Chief Operations Officer, said in a statement.
Fry did not respond to an email from the Denver Gazette seeking comment.
The Sisters of Charity opened the hospital in 1879 in Lake County to address the medical needs of the city’s mining community, treating about 1,000 patients in its first year.
Today, St. Vincent Health is one of two hospitals that serve Leadville, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data shows.
Located about 100 miles southwest of Denver, Leadville is a former silver mining town of fewer than 3,000 people. The city annually hosts the famous Leadville Trail 100 Run, an ultramarathon, on its rugged trails and dirt roads through the Colorado mountains.
St. Vincent Health is a Colorado special district and quasi-municipal corporation, according to the hospital’s website.
Last week, St. Vincent Health board of directors informed employees that they were cash strapped and unable to pay staff, according to 9 News, a Denver Gazette partner. During a special meeting held last Wednesday, directors said a cash advance they were expecting had yet to arrive.
The outlook was very different just 15 months ago when the hospital opened a brand new, $24 million facility to bring “surgical services back on site enabling general surgery, orthopedic surgery and many other procedures to take place locally,” according to the St. Vincent Hospital Foundation, the nonprofit organization that supports the work of St. Vincent Health.
Despite the extreme financial crisis the hospital is facing, management vowed to continue the work to keep the doors open.
“St. Vincent Health still has a challenging road ahead of us,” Fry said in a statement. “Our leadership team is committed to taking this opportunity to improve the hospital’s financial circumstance moving forward.
