University of Colorado Hospital: A History and Timeline

University of Colorado Hospital: A Brief History

University of Colorado Hospital was founded in 1921 by the Colorado General Assembly as part of the University of Colorado medical campus.

Seventy years later, it became University of Colorado Hospital Authority governed by a nine-member board of directors.

UCH is now the region's leading tertiary care and referral center. Community physicians from around the state, region, nation and, increasingly, the world, send patients to our hospital for advanced, collaborative care by some of the leading specialists in their fields.

The hospital system includes its contemporary, warm and high-touch buildings on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, plus six primary care clinics and many specialty clinics around the state.

University of Colorado Hospital: A Timeline

1921 University of Colorado Hospital founded in Denver.
1965 Hospital expands into a new building at Ninth and Colorado in Denver, featuring new-fangled advancements like only two beds to a room.
1989 University of Colorado Hospital separates from University of Colorado to become a private, not-for-profit corporation.
1991 After a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that the hospital could not legally become a corporation, the Colorado state legislature establishes University of Colorado Hospital Authority. It remains legally and financially separate from the state and its publicly funded universities.
1997 Pressed for space in which to expand, the hospital leases land to build clinical facilities at the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Garrison in Aurora, Colorado. The land had just been secured by the university, which, after leasing part of it to the hospital, also plans to move its health sciences schools to the area.
1998 The hospital and the University of Colorado Denver break ground for the first of their new facilities.
2000 The Anschutz Foundation makes a $25 million legacy gift to the hospital to help with the construction of its new buildings.
2000 The hospital’s Anschutz Outpatient Pavilion opens on Fitzsimons campus, now known as the Anschutz Medical Campus. 
2000 The Anschutz Cancer Pavilion, home of the hospital’s renowned cancer and oncology services, opens.
2001 University of Colorado Hospital breaks ground for the Anschutz Inpatient Pavilion, which the hospital initially plans to run in addition to its aging facilities at Ninth Ave & Colorado Blvd in Denver.
2001 The Children's Hospital announces plans to move to the Fitzsimons site, next to the hospital and the Anschutz Medical Campus.
2004 The first six floors (consisting of 100 beds) of the Anschutz Inpatient Pavilion, followed closely by the Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Institute, where the hospital runs its advanced ophthalmology practice.
2005 The Center for Dependency, Addiction & Rehabilitation opens on the west side of the Anschutz Medical Campus.
2006 The hospital moves the whole of its inpatient services to the just-finished Anschutz Inpatient Pavilion and a new, adjacent Critical Care Wing. Its facilities at Ninth Ave. and Colorado Blvd in Denver close.
2006 The Leprino Building, home to both added clinical services and the hospital’s administration, opens on the Anschutz Campus.

Look for a new book, History of the University of Colorado Hospital by Thomas Noel, Ph.D. and Robert Shikes, M.D., to be published in late 2008.