An opportunity to put “care” back in healthcare

 Six years ago, our local medical center was rebranded as “EP Health.”  My experience with the caregivers there has always been exemplary.

 The current Board and executive leadership, though, have adopted an uncaring attitude with all of their secret meetings and maintaining a toxic, hostile work environment that prizes submissiveness over professionalism.

 On May 6, the Estes Park voters will have an opportunity to restore Care to our local Healthcare institution. I will be voting for Dr. Tom Leigh and Janet Zeschin. Both Tom and Janet bring a practical, rather than a political, perspective to healthcare. Their ties to the community and active participation in civic and volunteer activities provide a base for assessing and addressing the needs of this community. 

Vision without vanity. Leadership in the light. Service above self. Those are the qualities that Tom and Janet will bring to the Park Hospital Board. Be sure to vote on May 6.

Paul Mueller, CPA

Upcoming Park Hospital District Board elections

I am writing this in support of Dr. Tom Leigh, candidate for the Park Hospital District Board.

I have known Dr. Leigh for many years and worked closely with him in the coordination of patient care, in the context of interaction between emergency room visits and internal medicine clinic care for my patients.

I felt always that he was a knowledgeable and caring physician and had absolute trust in his judgement and input.

Additionally, his interactions with staff and other physicians were cordial, professional and supportive.

I feel that Dr. Leigh is a representative very much needed on the Hospital Board, in particular because the current and recently departed physicians and other medical staff of the hospital have been struggling for a number of years with feeling pushed aside and disrespected, with their input unwanted by the current administration and Board. The turnover that has occurred demonstrates this clearly.

A hospital-based physician with a long career behind him has deep familiarity with the mechanisms of hospital operation, and the real needs of patients, as well as the needs of the medical staff, without whom there is no hospital.

While I am fully aware that a hospital cannot continue without adequate capital and a sound financial strategy, this is a hospital that was founded by local doctors specifically to care for the people of and visitors to Estes Park.

As a former local doctor with years of experience working in Estes Park, Dr. Leigh has the desperately needed concern for, and fortitude to speak up for, our patients and medical team. I know he is also aware of the importance of finances, and that he will work hard to ensure that the hospital survives and goes forward, particularly in light of the upcoming merger.

I am also sure he will advocate, for the sake of all of us living in Estes Park, that the services provided are truly geared towards taking the best and kindest care of our beloved patients, rather than just geared towards the bottom dollar.

Amanda Luchsinger, MD, Internal Medicine, retired from Estes Park Health 2022

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 (EPH). 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 common sense, 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

Lawsuits and public service

We are happy to see a new source of news for our community and have appreciated the Estes Valley Voice for having clearly identified problems in our community; however, lately we have been concerned about the lawsuits brought against Board volunteers who have given of their time to serve. 

Volunteers on the Fire Board do a great service in the effort to mitigate fires but have had to use time, money, and effort to fight a lawsuit that resulted in thousands of taxpayer dollars going to lawyers and the Voice instead of to fighting fires.

The Hospital Board is facing the same thing. We have no love for the present Hospital Board and hope to see needed changes with the May election, but are disappointed that a lawsuit will take away from the task of finding a way to keep our hospital going and facilitating an affiliation, not to mention the taxpayer funds involved in this!

Information and good reporting are necessary, but how does giving taxpayer dollars to lawyers help our community at all? 

Dona and John Cooper 

Editor’s note

On Dec. 30, 2024, the Larimer County Court found that the Estes Valley Fire Protection Board violated the State of Colorado’s Open Meetings law, which clearly states that decisions cannot be made in executive session.

The members of a publicly elected board can discuss certain matters in executive session, but they cannot make decisions behind closed doors. A board must gavel into an open public meeting, and a decision needs to be made transparently before the taxpayers and voters.

As a special district, the EVFPD is recognized as a political subdivision and a unit of government. Local taxpayers elect the members of the EFVPD Board, and the Board members take an oath to uphold the state’s constitution and laws, including following the Sunshine Laws.

The EFVPD Board could have avoided the lawsuit in the first place if they had not secretly made a decision about who they intended to hire as the new fire chief, and then if they had responded to the Colorado Open Records Act request made by the Estes Valley Voice to make the recording of the executive session meeting public.

The EVFPD Board could have avoided the expenses incurred in the lawsuit by not insisting on having a court hearing with oral arguments and not hiring one of Colorado’s most expensive law firms to represent them.

The Estes Valley Voice brought suit to ask the court to do an in-camera review of the executive session recordingto determine if the law had been broken, and if it had, to order the release of the recording to the public.

The matter could have easily been addressed through both sides’ legal briefs submitted to the court. The court could have read the legal briefs, listened to the recording, and made a decision without the theatrics and added expense of oral arguments.

One of the roles of the media is to serve as a watchdog of government institutions. When government officials, including the members of an elected board, violate state law, it affects trust in government on all levels.

While the EVFPD board serves without compensation, its members take the same oath of office as the Estes Park Town Board, Larimer County Commissioners, and state legislators do.

We cannot hold elected officials who do not collect a salary to a lower standard of honesty and scrutiny and give them a pass because they are “volunteers.”

Public service is public service, whether compensated or not; the public’s business must be done publicly with transparency and accountability.

Voters in the Estes Valley can cast votes for all five seats on the EVFPD Board on May 6.