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April 10, 2014 Douglas County, Colorado | Volume 13, Issue 12 A publication of
lonetreevoice.net
Buzz builds with CU campus kickoff Classes offered at The Wildlife Experience starting this fall By Chris Michlewicz
cmichlewicz @coloradocommunitymedia.com Anticipation is building for the fall opening of a University of Colorado campus at The Wildlife Experience. A well-attended welcoming reception at the Parker museum April 3 kicked off the beginning of what’s being billed as a symbiotic partnership. Business professionals will have a place close to home to continue their education, and employers will gain easier access to resources and a growing pool of highly-educated workers. Dave Liniger, founder of the wildlife art and natural history museum, said he never imagined The Wildlife Experience would host university-level classes. “This is a tremendous opportunity to fully utilize the facility,” said Liniger, who also created real estate giant RE/MAX with his wife, Gail, in the early 1970s.
More than 7,400 square-feet of exhibit space on the second floor of The Wildlife Experience will be turned into classroom space and nearly 4,000 square-feet in the basement will house a simulation lab for nursing students. Fields of study were selected based on the industries most represented in the residential populations and office buildings of Douglas and Arapahoe counties. The College of Engineering and Applied Science is opening with a partially-formed collection of classes, including software engineering, computer forensics and programming. The University of Colorado’s south campus will have a business school where students can earn a certificate in general business with for-credit courses that can be used toward a Master’s in Business Administration or specialty master’s degree. The business school will also offer a series of accelerated non-credit courses on highdemand topics. Those classes are expected to be popular among professionals advancing through the ranks of their company. Some courses and programs have prerequisites.
Three related disciplines — nursing, public health and human development — are playing into the south metro area’s recently-acquired status as a healthcare hotbed. A stretch of C-470 and E-470 has been dubbed the “medical mile” by local leaders, who point to the opening of Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine and continued success of Parker Adventist Hospital and outlying medical offices as a positive step for the region, both in terms of accessible care and jobs. Sky Ridge Medical Center, likewise, is a four-minute drive from The Wildlife Experience. Maureen Durkin, assistant dean for strategic development and evaluation for CU’s college of nursing, said her department is eager to work hand-in-hand with established facilities in a region that’s “growing by leaps and bounds.” The move to the south metro area also provides some breathing room. “Our nursing program at the Anschutz campus — we’re a little bit constrained in Campus continues on Page 10
Bruce Benson, president of the University of Colorado, speaks to those who gathered for a reception celebrating CU’s arrival at The Wildlife Experience. The satellite campus will open this fall and offer six areas of study. Photo by Chris Michlewicz
Liquor code change gains council’s OK Lone Tree restaurant welcomes news By Jane Reuter
jreuter@coloradocommunitymedia.com
Lone Tree’s Sky Ridge Medical Center topped a Consumer Reports’ list of safest Denver-area hospitals. Photo by Jane Reuter
Sky Ridge scores high on safety Consumer Reports weighs multiple factors in ratings By Jane Reuter
jreuter@coloradocommunitymedia.com Two Douglas County hospitals topped a Consumer Reports list of hospital safety for the Denver metro area. Lone Tree’s Sky Ridge Medical Center and Parker Adventist were rated first and second among 16 metro-area hospitals, based on five categories related to hospital safety. Sky Ridge scored 66 of a possible 100 points, and Parker Adventist, 65. Each of the five categories included 20 possible points relating to infections, readmissions, patient communications, necessary procedures
and mortality. “We are thrilled,” Sky Ridge CEO Maureen Tarrant said. “This particular recognition by Consumer Reports is a gold star. All of us consider Consumer Reports the go-to place for being rigorous in your analysis and determination of providing guest services and products. To be added to that list for such an important service — hospital care — just makes us all tremendously proud. “We’re very proud to have achieved this within about 10 years of opening.” So is Parker Adventist, which opened just six months after Sky Ridge in early 2004. “This ranking really supports our belief that here at Parker Adventist we deliver some of the highest-quality medical care in the metro area,” said hospital spokeswoman Rachel Robinson. “Quality and patient safety is a top priority for us.”
Among agencies that provide healthcare ratings, Tarrant said Consumer Reports is the most comprehensive. “It not only includes traditionally publicly reported statistics such as infection rates, but it even looks at about four different categories of performance,” she said. “Those include patient satisfaction and evidence-based medicine protocols, such as how much radiation you get when you get CAT scans at Sky Ridge. Those four categories are really very, very comprehensive.” Consumer Reports’ mortality ratings are based on how likely patients are to die within 30 days of hospital admittance for a heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia. It also considers how often surgery patients with treatable complications die during their stay. The data is based on patients aged 65 and older.
Thai Orchids’ manager Lyn Tran is tired of telling her customers “no” when they ask for a drink with dinner; she’s even more discouraged when some of them choose to eat elsewhere. A change to Lone Tree’s liquor code means Tran soon will be able to say “yes.” The city council voted April 1 to fix an anomaly in its liquor code that allowed restaurants just a few feet away from Tran’s to serve alcohol, but not hers. The code prohibited the issuance of new liquor licenses to businesses located within 500 feet of a public elementary school. Lone Tree Elementary opened in 2007, so nearby businesses already open at that time were unaffected. Under the previous code, Viet Pho — only a few feet away from Thai Orchids — can offer its customers a wine list. And Heritage Hills Wine and Spirits, around the corner from it, can sell alcohol of all varieties. Thai Orchids cannot even offer its customers a Singha beer. The liquor code restriction even has affected the restaurant’s take-out business. “They’re really disappointed because they want a drink while they’re waiting,” Tran said, adding she’s occasionally lost dine-in customers when they learn they can’t have a drink with their meal. “Everybody has a license except me.” While Tran’s Thai restaurant garners consistently good reviews, it’s done so on the strength of its food alone. The previous owner suffered the same problem, said Tran, but she decided to Liquor continues on Page 10
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