Edwards Precourt Center Pivots to Adult Care as Adolescent Visits Drop

Gunnison —The Precourt Healing Center in Edwards is treating adults, not kids.

That is the reality a year after the Vail Health Behavioral Health facility opened its doors. The 48,000-square-foot inpatient psychiatric hospital was built with a specific demographic in mind: adolescents.

It was supposed to be the only psychiatric hospital between Denver and Salt Lake City capable of handling the region’s youth mental health crisis. The design reflected that promise. Two floors. Four wings. Two wings dedicated to adolescent care, two to adult care.

The plan has shifted.

Vail Health is now staffing 16 of the 28 beds. They are focusing solely on adult patients. Adolescent referrals have dried up.

In the first 10 days of 2025, there were only three adolescent referrals. Young people in the local area or surrounding Western Slope counties facing acute behavioral health issues are not staying in Edwards. They are being sent to the Front Range.

"We’re very happy about that," Vail Health Behavioral Health Executive Director Chris Lindley said on a Zoom call last week.

It sounds counterintuitive. You build a hospital for kids, and the kids don’t show up. But Lindley says this is actually good news. It means the investment in outpatient care is working.

The state has focused heavily on adolescent behavioral health infrastructure. Schools have added resources. The community system has expanded. Providers are catching issues before they require inpatient hospitalization.

"We had opened up first to serve that population," Lindley said. "The prior two years, there had been a lot of talk across the state about the lack of adolescent beds and the need (for inpatient psychiatric services) for adolescents."

The demand for adults, however, is relentless.

Every day, Precourt receives between 10 and 20 adult referrals. Since opening on May 5, 2025, the center has seen 773 patient discharges. Adults are coming from 62 of Colorado’s 64 counties.

This pivot to adult care arrives just months after West Springs Hospital in Grand Junction shut its 48 inpatient beds last year. The Western Slope needed a place to send adults who were previously being bused out of the valley or stuck in emergency departments. Precourt is filling that gap.

The facility itself remains impressive. Private rooms. Windows. Natural light. Exercise areas. Group therapy spaces designed for art and healing. It is a high-level care environment. But the patient mix has changed.

Vail Health Behavioral Health, a nonprofit founded in 2019, is seeing growth across the board. In the 2025 fiscal year, the organization provided approximately 26,000 unique behavioral health sessions. That includes 8,250 psychiatry sessions, more than 13,300 therapy sessions, and 4,000 integrated behavioral health sessions across Edwards and Frisco in Summit County.

That is a 14% increase from the 2024 fiscal year.

The shift in patient demographics at Precourt highlights a broader trend in Western Slope healthcare. The acute crisis for youth is being managed in outpatient settings. The acute crisis for adults is still requiring inpatient beds.

Locals might wonder what this means for the original promise of the facility. The building is there. The beds are there. But the adolescent wing is largely quiet.

It shows the success of outpatient care, or perhaps a sign that the adolescent crisis has moved elsewhere. Either way, the adults are staying.

The Front Range is still taking the kids.