The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Adding electronic records, new EMS building and planning medical office building
By Katherine Nettles
Gunnison Valley Health (GVH) is off to a strong financial start in 2025 and looking at several big changes for the hospital system. In an update to Gunnison County commissioners in March, several of the leadership team members at GVH painted a picture of major improvements across healthcare services, facilities and operations.
GVH board of trustees board chair Mark Kaufman described 2025 as having the potential to be a financial turn-around for the hospital system.
“I think 2025 is going to be a very significant year for GVH,” he said. “We have a number of big projects; we’re about six weeks away from converting to the Epic electronic health record system which really has the potential to be transformational both for GVH and for the people in the communities we serve.”
Kaufman also said January numbers indicated that 2025 could be a year of financial improvement based on stronger revenue and lower expenses than projected.
“I think the board generally feels we’ve had our financial struggles in the last year, but I think we are cautiously optimistic that this is the year that we will make a financial turn-around,” Kaufman said.
He added that the first month of data showed overall revenue was up, expenses were down below what was budgeted, “and although contractual adjustments remain a challenge, I think we are more confident as a board that we have better processes in place, better leadership and that we will make that turnaround.”
Kaufman said the hope was to make plans for a new medical office building this year, “which can also be transformational for years down the road.” GVH CEO Jason Amrich said they are looking at financing options to build a medical office building or to purchase and remodel an existing structure. “It’s going to be really challenging and complicated,” he admitted. “GVH’s current state of financial improvement is really in our hands to improve our own revenue performance. Compared to other communities, our volumes aren’t declining. People aren’t not showing up.”
Amrich said the hospital system was up 15% for the year to date in visitation for inpatient and outpatient visitors. “We know that we need these facilities and improvements. We also know that we can’t get water from a stone,” he said. In a memo included in the meeting portfolio, GVH showed it has increased its rates by approximately 4.5% over the past three years which has helped increase revenue and has run a more efficient system by collecting what is or should already be billed. He said getting claims out the door and dealing with insurance denials are all part of those improvement areas.
The new Emergency Medical Services (EMS) building in Gunnison is on budget and scheduled for completion in September 2025, said Amrich.
The Epic implementation is in process and should go live on May 3 if all goes according to plan. Kaufman said they will also be undertaking significant primary care practice redesign along with Epic. “We really look forward to patients being able to schedule appointments online, to standardize provider schedules,” he said, among other ways that the Epic system will offer system improvements.
GVH is looking for a chief financial officer (CFO) and in the meantime has an interim CFO, retired Aspen Valley Hospital CFO Ginette Sebalaner. The hospital system is also recruiting a general surgeon (with a potential candidate in negotiations), a hand surgeon and expanded oncology providers. Dr. Nickolas Paulos began his dermatology clinic in early March and appointments are generally booked out for six weeks. In 2024 GVH acquired Gunnison Valley Family Physicians as well.
