A state effort to ease Colorado’s dire shortage of health care workers will offer tuition-free training for several thousand students, providing a much-needed boost to hospitals and clinics. The Care Forward Colorado Program will invest $26 million of federal COVID stimulus funding into the program for two years, guaranteeing free schooling for students interested in […]
hospitals
Posted inCOVID, Health, News, Politics and Government
Everything you need to know about the major health care bills still alive at the Colorado Capitol
There are officially only two weeks left in the legislative session this year in Colorado, and state lawmakers are continuing to debate several major bills — including ones that could have a significant impact on the state’s health care system. In recent legislative sessions, Colorado lawmakers passed eye-popping, heavily contested proposals to create a historic […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
Why Colorado’s ongoing fight against high hospital prices is now a lot more complicated
Colorado’s top health officials think the prices charged by large hospital systems in the state are too high. This is not exactly news; Kim Bimestefer, the executive director of the state’s Medicaid department, has been making this argument for years. But a new report and new comments made by Bimestefer during a virtual policy summit […]
Posted inHealth, News
There’s a new nonprofit hospital system in Colorado. Here’s how the CEO says it will keep down prices.
In his time as president and CEO of Intermountain Healthcare, the Utah-based hospital system that just merged with Colorado-based SCL Health, Dr. Marc Harrison has earned a reputation as being something of a visionary. Forbes last year named him one of the top 10 CEOs transforming health care in America. The publication Modern Healthcare regularly […]
Posted inBusiness, Health, News
Colorado OKs SCL Health megamerger, creating one of the largest nonprofit health systems in the West
Colorado-based SCL Health, which operates eight hospitals and dozens of clinics across three states, cleared the last hurdle on Thursday in its plan to merge with Utah-based Intermountain Healthcare to create one of the largest nonprofit health systems in the Western U.S. After a review, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office issued an opinion allowing the […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
Colorado deactivates crisis standards for health care system as COVID cases decline
Colorado on Thursday deactivated so-called crisis standards of care for the health care system, another sign of the improving pandemic and the state’s move toward handling COVID as a normal part of life. Crisis standards of care provide guidance and liability protection to health care workers when they are dealing with situations where they don’t […]
Posted inHealth, News
Colorado reinstates crisis care standards that allow EMS to limit who uses ambulances
For the second time during the COVID-19 pandemic, Colorado has implemented guidelines to try to ensure that ambulances are only used to take the most sick or injured patients to hospitals. Colorado re-enacted the crisis standards of care for emergency medical services on Friday due the number of emergency medical staff out sick and high […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
Thanks in part to federal relief funds, most Colorado hospitals were profitable in 2020
A new report from a national expert on hospital finances shows that Colorado hospitals weathered the early months of the coronavirus pandemic profitably, despite seeing a steep decline in revenue related to patient care. Hospitals in the Denver metro area posted combined profits of nearly $1.4 billion in 2020, according to the report from Allan […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Zornio: Polis is playing with fire, and his mistakes on COVID-19 may lead to a full hospital collapse
It’s one thing to claim you follow the science, it’s another to actually do it. For weeks, Colorado’s hospital system has remained on the “brink of collapse.” It’s the expected result of months of inaction at state and local levels, with business-as-usual policies leading to a potent combination of too many critical care patients — […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
Did Colorado’s COVID vaccine mandate for health care workers hurt hospital staffing? It’s complicated.
At his hospital on Colorado’s Western Slope, Jeff Mengenhausen sees the strain afflicting hospitals across the state. The ICU at Montrose Memorial Hospital is full — and likely will stay full for months, he said. Every time a bed opens up, a patient gets transferred in to fill it. His workforce is taxed. The hospital […]