Lutheran Hospital unveils $680 million state-of-the-art facility in Colorado

    WHEAT RIDGE, Colorado (KCNC) -- Local officials, Lutheran Hospital staff, and other community members celebrated the completion of their new facility with a ribbon-cutting Thursday night.

After four years and nearly $700 million, those in attendance had an opportunity to walk through the new building for the first time.

Inside, patients will find state-of-the-art technology in every room and improved access to neurosurgery, heart, stroke, and trauma care.

The facility was also designed with staff and patient interaction in mind. Nurses will be closer to the bedside, and there will be more nursing stations.

Megan Nunnelly, the Director of Acute Care Nursing, has been at the current Lutheran location for 14 years.

"Lutheran is where I grew up in my nursing career; it's where I started. There's just a lot of familiarity there. I had my two kids there, so it's leaving that piece behind as well. It's just the paths you take, the routes to work you take, and while we will take the people and the culture and everything that's great with us, there is just something you'll miss about the building and that space," Nunnelly said.

While the construction is complete, there is one additional challenge to face: moving patients from the old location into the new facility, which hospital officials plan to do in one day on August 3.