Porter Adventist Hospital is a 368-bed acute care hospital located in the University of Denver/Harvard Park area of Denver, Colorado. Porter Adventist specializes in treating patients with cardiac care, cancer care, joint replacement, behavioral health, spinal care and transplant needs. Porter is a regional referral center for complex medicine and surgeries such as kidney, liver and pancreas transplants, open-heart surgeries and cancer care. In 2009, Porter Adventist was recognized as achieving quality care, nursing excellence and innovations in professional nursing practice by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. The hospital also was ranked No. 1 in Colorado for overall cardiac care, cardiology services and coronary interventional procedures by HealthGrades, the leading national independent healthcare ratings organization. Porter employs 1,450 people and has a medical staff of more than 1,000 physicians and allied health professionals. The hospital runs a range of community outreach programs including the Kidney Early Evaluation Program, Body of Knowledge Community Seminars, and supports Doctors Care, a program that provides health care to low-income, uninsured Coloradans. They also donate medications, supplies and staff time to overseas medical missions. The hospital invests $40 million a year in charity care and underwriting medical care for the uninsured.
History
In the early 1930s, Denver businessman Henry Porter fell ill while traveling in California. His treatment at two Seventh-day Adventist sanitoriums inspired him to build a hospital in Denver that embraced the Seventh-day Adventist philosophy of caring for the whole person. In 1930, he donated land and money to build Porter Adventist Hospital. The original hospital opened just months into the Great Depression. From the 1940s through the 1960s, the hospital built south, east and west additions. In 1959, the hospital auxiliary was established; it is now the Porter Volunteer Association. In 1992 Porter Hospital started the Ask-A-Nurse telephone hot-line. This service is still offered today. In 1996, Porter joined Catholic Health Initiatives, which has a joint venture between the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati and the Sisters of St. Francis, to form Centura Health, Colorado's largest hospital and health care network delivering advanced care to more than half a million people each year, across 12 hospitals, seven senior living communities, medical clinics, Flight for Life and home care and hospice services. Porter continues to be owned & sponsored by the Adventist Health System, the largest not-for-profit Protestant healthcare provider in the nation. On December 11, 2014 Porter Adventist Hospital became a Level 3 trauma center.
Expansion
In 2007, Porter completed a $110 million expansion and renovation project that added to the hospital. The expansion added a new emergency department. In addition, Porter added 15 operating rooms and 36 intensive care beds, combining cardiac and surgical units. A new entrance and lobby were unveiled. Finally, the renovation included a new parking garage with more than 640 new spaces. In 2009, Porter opened a four-bed cardiac short-stay unit for low-risk cardiac patients. In 2011, Porter opened the Porter Robotics Institute.
Sponsorship and Affiliations
Porter is sponsored by AdventHealth, the largest not-for-profit Protestant health system in the United States, with 38 hospitals, 44,000 employees, 23 nursing homes and more than 20 in-home care agencies. The Florida-based Adventist Health System serves more than four million people each year and is one of several regional Adventist health care systems in the nation affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist church. Porter is also part of the Centura Health system, Colorado's largest hospital and health care network.
