The votes are counted, the “University of Colorado Health” banner hangs outside Memorial Central, but the work of integrating Memorial Health System into UC Health is just beginning.

After Tuesday’s landslide election in favor of leasing city-owned Memorial to UC Health, both sides can now get down to the nitty gritty of getting everything ready for the Oct. 1 handoff.

A new local board to oversee the hospital needs to be named, as well as a new CEO. Little things such as signs and name tags have to be updated, and a few big items such as a plan to sublet Memorial Hospital for Children to Children’s Hospital Colorado still need to be finalized. And UC Health still needs to write a $259 million check to the city of Colorado Springs.

Bruce Schroffel, CEO of UC Health, said he and other executives will spend a lot of time in Colorado Springs in the coming months.

“We’re pretty excited, this has been a long haul for us too. We are excited and plan on being focused down there and making it a better place,” Schroffel said Wednesday morning. “Getting things moving at Memorial is the highest priority right now. It’s gone through challenging times and we’ve got a lot of work we want to do down there to make it clearly the flagship for El Paso County and southern Colorado.”

Rebuilding employee morale is at the top of his list, Schroffel said.

“Our goal is to make sure Memorial is as stable as possible because they’ve gone through very difficult times in the past three years,” he said. “They have a lot to be proud of. I think it’s a good, solid place that we can make better.”

Schroffel said UC Health would also do some advertising and outreach in Colorado Springs to let people know about the transition. A new CEO and leadership team should be in place in the next two to four weeks, Schroffel said. He praised interim CEO Mike Scialdone, but said there hadn’t been a decision made on whether he would remain in that role.

For many voters, the chance to bring a branch campus of the University of Colorado School of Medicine to the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs was a highlight of the deal. UC Health has pledged $3 million a year toward establishing the campus, but Schroffel said getting it up and running could take two to three years.

The city has a fair amount of work to do itself. City Council and Mayor Steve Bach need to agree on bylaws and a board for a new health foundation that will manage the $74 million up front and $5.6 million annual lease payments from UC Health. City Attorney Chris Melcher said he expects the articles and bylaws for the foundation to be finished by the end of September.

Melcher may also have his hands full with a lawsuit against Colorado’s Public Employees Retirement Association. The bulk of that $259 million UC Health is paying up front goes toward $185 million intended to cover the city’s potential pension liability for Memorial’s employees. UC Health is setting up its own pension plan and will not keep Memorial’s employees in the state system.

PERA has given estimates as high as $246 million for the potential pension liability, but the city filed a lawsuit Aug. 15 asking a judge to find that it owes the system nothing.

Melcher said Colorado Springs has always paid PERA whatever was asked and that removing Memorial’s employees from the plan should be no different than outsourcing snowplow drivers or any other change of employment in the city.—Contact Andrew Wineke: 636-0275 Twitter @awinekeFacebook Andrew Wineke-Gazette