Grand Junction’s medical offerings continue to evolve at a healthy clip with a goal of keeping patients in the Grand Valley for specialized care instead of sending them to Denver or Salt Lake City for treatment.

Just a month ago, St. Mary’s Medical Center and Fruita’s Colorado Canyons Hospital announced a partnership for a long-term recovery program. St. Mary’s patients who are ready to leave the intensive care unit, but not yet ready to go home, can convalesce at the Fruita hospital after a $4.5 million expansion is completed.

The Transitional Care Program will keep St. Mary’s patients from either having to be transferred to a larger city or taking up a bed in the ICU and racking up a bigger bill when they would be better suited elsewhere.

That theme was repeated in a new St. Mary’s venture with a decidedly bigger economic punch. Hospital officials and civic leaders broke ground Thursday on a new $48 million center for heart and vascular health.

Read more at The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.