Delta, CO (July 16, 2021) – Delta Health will be revamping the structure of its clinics and services to increase efficiency and to continue serving the community’s healthcare needs.
Over the past few weeks, Delta Health has announced Delta Health Urgent Care and Delta Health West Elk Paonia walk-in clinics will be closing on July 22, 2021.
Starting July 22, 2021, providers will be ready to serve all urgent and walk-in care needs in its primary care clinics: Delta Health Family Medicine, Delta Health Pediatrics in Delta and Delta Health West Elk Hotchkiss. Delta Health Internal Medicine Clinic will have same-day appointments available, but will not have walk-in capacity.
Delta Health Family Medicine and Delta Health West Elk Hotchkiss will have extended hours, Saturday hours and same-day appointments available. Community members do not have to be current patients of the clinics to utilize the walk-in providers at the Family Medicine and West Elk Hotchkiss Clinics.
- Delta Health Family Medicine 555 Meeker Street, Delta, CO 81416; 970-874-5777: A walk-in provider will be available during all open hours which will be extended to Monday and Tuesday 8 am to 5 pm, Wednesday thru Saturday 8 am to 5 pm.
- Delta Health West Elk Hotchkiss 230 E. Hotchkiss Ave, Hotchkiss, CO 81419; 970-872-1400: A walk-in provider will be available during all open hours which will be extended to Monday-Friday 8 am to 5 pm and every Saturday from 8 am to 12 pm.
- Delta Health Pediatrics 296 Stafford Lane, Delta, CO 81416; 970-546-4000. Walk-in services will be Monday thru Friday from 8:30 am to 4 pm.
- Delta Health Internal Medicine 1450 Burgess Street, Delta, CO 81416: will have acute same-day appointments available 5 days a week, but will not have extended hours or Saturday hours. Call Delta Health Internal Medicine to schedule a same-day appointment.
Other clinic changes include moving the location of Delta Health Outpatient Therapies and Sports Performance (Rehabilitation) from Hotchkiss to Paonia in fall 2021 to utilize the building that Delta Health already owns.
Physical Medicine (not physical therapy), located at the Grand Mesa Medical Building, will close on August 7, 2021. Pain management services are being reestablished through Delta Health Pain Center Clinic starting fall 2021. The Pain Center Clinic, currently working out of the cardiopulmonary outpatient area, will be located at 236 Cottonwood Street (current Women’s Center location) to utilize space Delta Health owns. Those clinic hours will be announced soon.
The Colorado West Otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat) services will no longer be available at Delta Health Family Medicine and will instead be referred out to other providers in the community.
“The decision to close these clinics was based on either low patient volumes or that we had to rent the building that the clinic was housed in,” said Vickie Schauster, Executive Director of Clinics. “Our number one priority in this process was to preserve needed services and utilize buildings we already own to save money and improve the financial integrity of the organization. We are confident that these changes will help to stabilize and strengthen our long-term position as the main healthcare provider in Delta County.”
Delta Health will also be closing the Delta Health Women’s Center Clinic, formerly Premier Women’s Clinic, on August 30, 2021, and women’s healthcare services will be consolidated into the family practice clinics at Delta Health Family Medicine and Delta Health West Elk Hotchkiss. Doctors Amber Angles, Matthew Lebsack and Jonathan Richman will continue providing excellent obstetric (OB) care to Delta County communities.
“We are not eliminating obstetrics or women’s health; we are simply moving from an OB/GYN model to a Family Practice Obstetrics model, which is a recognized model in other healthcare systems nationwide,” said Schauster. “Women’s healthcare services will always be a priority for Delta Health.”
“Not only are our three family practice providers well known in our community for excellent OB care, but they are also highly qualified,” said Schauster.
The providers at Family Medicine and West Elk Hotchkiss have been participating in the baby-friendly education and delivering babies at Stork’s Landing, the Delta Health Birthing Center, for a while now. “That is not going to change,” said Schauster. Birth control options will also still be offered and available through Delta Health primary care physicians.
In 2017 Delta Health was designated as a baby-friendly hospital and is one of only four baby-friendly designated hospitals on the Western Slope of Colorado. Stork’s Landing will continue to provide the best maternity care for mothers and babies while also supporting breastfeeding.
Kimberly Walker, a board-certified Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner (WHNP-BC), will also be located at Family Medicine to serve women’s healthcare needs alongside the family medicine providers in the primary care clinics. She is a nurse practitioner whose education and experience focus on providing comprehensive primary care services to women of all ages. Walker also does infertility evaluations and treatment. Patients do not have to have Walker as their primary care provider to utilize her services.
Christi Anderson is also a board-certified Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner and will be located at the Delta Health West Elk Hotchkiss Clinic.
“We know these changes affect our patients, staff and community but we want to assure everyone that we will continue to provide the same quality, compassionate, trusted healthcare services – but in a more efficient way,” said Schauster.
Patients that are within the Delta Health system do not need to call the clinic to transfer their records to a Delta Health family practice clinic. If patients are transferring from care outside of the Delta Health system, please call Delta Health Women’s Center at 970.874.7930 before August 30. To request transfer of records after August 30, call Delta Family Medicine at 970.874.5777 or Delta Health West Elk Hotchkiss at 970.872.1400.
For more information regarding these changes, follow Delta Health on social media @DeltaHealthCo or visit deltahealthco.org.
