What’s the Back-Up Plan for EP Health?
I am a full-time resident currently running for one of the two seats on the Park Hospital District/EP Health Board.
After speaking with 16 Estes Park Hospital healthcare professionals, two members of the Board, Estes Valley non-profit organizations, and many citizen stakeholders and business owners, I realize that there’s still a lot of mystery in the proposed merger with UCHealth.
Several candidates for the hospital board seats have pre-emptively expressed their full endorsement for said merger.
I, however, have some reservations which could be addressed if Vern Carda, the EP Helath CEO, would find a way around whatever non-disclosure agreement exists and broker what can be brokered instead of leaving the Estes Valley in the proverbial dark.
As citizen stakeholders, we want substantive progress reports not C-suite silence.
But what if it all falls apart?
What if – despite time spent by EPH’s executive leadership – UCHealth does NOT see the efficacy in partnering with our stand-alone critical access hospital?
Where does that leave us?
Do we have a back-up plan?
If there’s a back-up plan, an alternate approach, or an interim measure, I’ve not met anyone who’s aware of one.
Since nature abhors a vacuum, may I propose several options?
First, I think it’s time for the Estes Park Health Foundation to merge with the SALUD Foundation, and possibly three to four other key partners, to create a larger Estes Valley Healthcare Foundation – a more robust non-profit to work with the community to help realize solutions for patient-facing medical equipment needs, to address deficits in specialty care among our aged, to supplement a financial base in order to serve the underinsured and the uninsured of the Estes Valley.
Second, contracting with smaller specialty providers along the Front Range to provide in-person services in the Estes Valley – not necessarily at the hospital, but up here in the valley – as this could serve to fill the provider desert that we face until a long-term solution is realized.
Third, incentivizing tenure or healthcare professionals – not just the physicians – those who elect to continue serving the Estes Valley stakeholders – i.e. the patients – and finding out what motivates these professionals, finding ways to accommodate interests in supplemental credentialing, improving their quality of their work-life balance, and addressing process improvement from the staff’s suggestions themselves.
Fourth – related to my second suggestion above – find Front Range providers who offer telehealth encounters, whether synchronous live sessions i.e., tele-PT, telepsychiatry; or, asynchronous store-and-forward sessions, i.e., telepodiatry, teleretinal imaging, telederm, wound care, etc. – and partner with them for certain clinics.
Fifth, establish liaisons with the Veteran Health Administration and become a community care provider in order to offer non-VA clinical services to the large veteran population intrinsic to the Estes Valley and to those veteran patients traveling to Estes Park during the peak season who may need more than the established urgent care and emergency room visits covered by the VHA.
These are just a few of the ideas I have, and I hope to broker more if selected to fill one of the two hospital board seats up for election on May 6th.
Ralph Strickland, Estes Valley resident
Please Support Dr. Tom Leigh for EPH Board
We have known Dr. Tom Leigh for a number of years, during which time he worked as an emergency room doctor for Estes Park Health.
His commitment to providing excellent healthcare to the citizens of Estes Park has always been commendable, but what struck us the most was his willingness to listen to his fellow staff members and provide a sounding board for their many issues.
He has seen firsthand the problems that exist at the hospital and his commonsense, compassionate ideas about how to address those problems make him ideal for serving as an EPH board member.
He is courageous, smart, works well with his peers, and is dedicated to the Estes Park community.
If you seek a board member who is committed to transparency and believes in an open dialogue between the hospital board and the community and who will place the vitality of the hospital and the medical needs of everyone as his top priority, then please cast your vote for Dr. Tom Leigh for the Estes Park Hospital board.
Liz and Ken Zornes
Danger is at the door of our nation
As I was driving in the car a song came on the radio, Uncle John’s Band by the Grateful Dead.
“Well the first days are the hardest days, don’t you worry anymore, ’cause when life looks like easy street there is danger at your door. Think this through with me, let me know your mind, woah, oh, what I want to know is are you kind?
I began to think of how the words in the song related to our current state of affairs in these United States.
Everyday another bombshell hits the news. It is difficult to keep up with all of the Executive Orders and all of the actions being carried out by persons at high level Federal positions. Not to mention, the private citizen enabled to do the work of dismantling our government, all because he is a billionaire
I have to ask, are these orders and actions kind?
I believe the danger is at the door of our nation
It appears to me that this administration wants to take away essential programs that serve, protect, and uplift the people in order to give tax breaks to the wealthy and keep monetary wealth and power in the hands of a very few in our nation
It seems this administration has forsaken the wealth of truth, of kindness and respect, of friendship with our allies; all for the material wealth of money. They appear to be setting aside the power of diversity, equality, inclusion, and the power of many; for the power of one along side a few.
I ask:
Do we want a government that silences the 80 year old broadcasts of the Voice of America across the globe?
Do we want a nation that removes from it’s history the truth, bravery, and national service that Indigenous, Black, Hispanic, and Women Veterans have given to their country?
Do we want the Alien Enemies Act to be enacted during peacetime and against Immigration which has historically not been constituted as an invasion upon our nation, as well as, legal citizens that hold a view point contrary to the current administration.
Do we want to forsake our First Amendment rights as written in our Constitution?
Do we want a government that turns from Democracy, the rule of law, equality and justice for all, and from a country where every man, woman, and child is created equal despite their skin color, gender, religion, economic class, disabilities, political party, or beliefs?
This is becoming a Constitutional crisis. The writing is on the wall, the danger is at the door.
We must do everything within our power to keep our country a Democracy with checks and balances as intended by our Founding Fathers. This is in order to protect our government, created for and by the people, all of the people. We must remind all elected officials of their duty to serve the people, all of the people. We are all, as people, a lot more alike than we are different
As the song goes:
“Come hear Uncle John’s Band, by the riverside, got some things to talk about, here beside the rising tide. Come hear Uncle John’s Band playing to the tide. Come along, or go alone, he’s come to take his children home. Woah, oh, what I want to know, how does the song go?”
The power will be in our song, in our voice, in our actions, and in our vote!
What song do you want to hear ringing out in our nation?
Patti Donahue, Estes Park
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