Red Rocks Community College and Clear Creek County recently celebrated completion of the three-year grant that funded their creation of a health clinic for underserved, low-income patients.
The Colorado Trust's Health Professions Initiative recognized the work of Red Rocks staff and students in cooperation with Clear Creek County public health nurses and the county commissioners over the three years of the grant.
The Clear Creek County town of Idaho Springs lost its only health clinic serving un-insured and under-insured patients in 2003. Residents, including those on Medicaid and Medicare, had to travel to Blackhawk or Evergreen for health care.
Joan Smith, Dean of Planning, Research and Strategic Initiatives for Red Rocks, worked with the schools in Idaho Springs and knew of the need. She and
Jim Keller, head of the college's Physician Assistant Program, brainstormed about a possible solution.
"We were looking to expand our students' in underserved rural and urban medicine," Keller said.
They contacted
Jean Barta, a registered nurse and public health nurse with the Clear Creek County Public Nursing Office, who approached the county commissioners with the idea of collaboration.
Smith applied for and won a $366,000, three-year grant from the Trust. The clinic opened in 2005 and operated for a year in a Clear Creek County building.
In 2006, Dr.
Elane Shirar bought the clinic and moved it into a historic 137-year-old home, adding it to the four clinics she operates in Longmont, Arvada, Denver and West Yellowstone National Park.
Red Rocks medical assistant and physician assistant students work at the clinic as part of their training rotation, supervised by the professional staff. Keller initially worked part-time at the clinic, along with two of the program's faculty members. He left Red Rocks in January of this year to work full time at the clinic.
"I'm very happy right now," Keller said. "This is the kind of practice I always wanted to get into."
The county obtained grants for the building the clinic is housed in and for equipment and marketed the clinic to the communities it serves, Barta said. "Having a health care site that serves all citizens of a community is basic infrastructure for a community and it needs to be promoted and sustained."
The clinic, which started slowly, now has about 700 patients from several surrounding communities, a number that is growing daily. It is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, averaging about 24 patient visits daily.
Seventy-five percent of the clinic's clients are on Medicare, Medicaid or have no insurance, Keller said.
"The whole purpose of the clinic is to be available to people who can't afford to go to another clinic," he said. Fees are based on a sliding scale and uninsured clients who can't afford the $39 charge are treated for free. The county's resource center also helps low-income patients with the cost of medications, specialists, diagnostic tests and other costs.
Patients come in for everything from routine treatment like vaccinations and checkups (Keller recently did 17 sports physicals at the local middle and high schools) to emergencies like broken bones, lacerations and other illnesses. This month, certified nurse midwives from St. Anthony's Hospital have begun women's health clinics there two days a week, freeing Keller for home and nursing home visits. Eventually, mental health counselors from Jefferson County will also be housed in the clinic.