Just what is Banner Health planning?

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  McKee Medical Center, Loveland. Licensed beds: 115. Occupancy rate: 53 percent. Year opened: 1976. Operator: Banner Health
  (Courtesy McKee Medical Center)
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  Poudre Valley Hospital, Fort Collins. Licensed beds: 241. Occupancy rate: 63.67 percent. Year opened: 1925. Operator: University of Colorado Health.
  (Courtesy Poudre Valley Hospital)
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  Medical Center of the Rockies, Loveland. Licensed beds: 164. Occupancy rate: 61.78 percent. Year opened: 2007. Operator: University of Colorado Health.
  (Courtesy Medical Center of the Rockies)
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  North Colorado Medical Center, Greeley. Licensed beds: 381. Occupancy rate: 60.4 percent. Year opened: 1904 (as The Greeley Hospital). Operator: Banner Health.
  (Courtesy North Colorado Medical Center)
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  A new medical complex: Banner’s plans include two adjacent buildings labeled as a hospital.
  (Source: BHA Design Inc.)
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  Hospitals aplenty? Four hospitals already call NoCo home.
  (Map by Bernie Simon, Business Report)

Banner Health System’s plans for a medical campus in Fort Collins have raised a number of questions, not the least of which is just how many hospital beds a city might need.

Fort Collins is home, of course, to Poudre Valley Hospital, which is licensed at 241 beds.

In the world of health care and hospitals, the generally accepted notion is that a community needs two or three beds per 1,000 people, depending in part on the average age and health of the people in that community.

Given its 2010 Census count of 143,986 souls, Fort Collins would need between 288 and 432 beds.

If matters were black and white, that would mean Banner could add as many as 191 hospital beds in Fort Collins and ostensibly fill them, though perhaps not too easily.

But it’s not quite so clear-cut, which helps explain why, thus far, Banner has been a bit coy about its plans.

The Arizona-based company is buying 29 acres at Presidio, an 85-acre parcel at the intersection of Harmony Road and Lady Moon Drive.

Plans it submitted to the city indicate several buildings, but two stand out. One is labeled “phase I hospital,” and the second is labeled “future hospital.” All