Shaun’s first guest blog focused on his thoughts before surgery in August and his hopes for an improved lifestyle, while his subsequent blogs gave an update about his progress. They are all inspiring reads: one month after surgery; a Q&A with Shaun; and his dreams for 2012.

If you or a friend think bariatric surgery may help, please call 866.495.7579 or click here to learn more.

Back in August, I could barely walk to my mailbox and back. Things have changed a lot since I had bariatric surgery.

If you remember, the day I had surgery I weighed 725 lbs.

Fishing

At my primary care doctor’s office even before that, when we first started talking about weight-loss surgery, I weighed 767 lbs.

I’m happy to say that now I’m down by 209 pounds. I know I wouldn’t have been able to do that on my own.

When I say things have changed a lot, I mean a lot.

I can walk much better. My mom and I go to Dixon Reservoir to fish. She caught a huge catfish the other day. I thought her trout pole was going to break, but she stuck with it and brought it in.

I like being on the go.

We’ve been going fishing so much that I jacked up my shoulder. I don’t know if it was from casting or catching, but it hurts.

Last year I wouldn’t have even thought about going fishing, let alone hurting my shoulder doing it. I kind of like the fact that I was able to get out and hurt myself. I like being on the go. Besides, I don’t think it’s serious.

A lot of people seem to have questions about weight-loss surgery these days. I like answering their questions.

In fact, this guy called me up after reading my blog and wanted to talk about surgery. We talked for three hours. We’ve gotten to be pretty good friends. He’s come over and gotten a few tattoos and now he’s heading in for surgery in a couple of days.

He’s pretty scared but I keep telling him everything will be fine. The doctors and nurses at Poudre Valley Hospital know what they’re doing.

Besides, once you start losing the weight and feeling better, you’ll forget you were ever scared.

Of course, everyone asks about food.

When people ask about the weight-loss surgery, I tell them I wouldn’t change a thing. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

At this point I can pretty much eat anything but I’ve really focused on eating healthy. I stay away from red meat. I eat chicken and fish. I also eat salads.

It’s funny. Before I had surgery, I ate whatever I wanted and didn’t really think about nutrition. Now I think about nutrition. I want to make sure I eat right.

Things have definitely been 100 percent on the go. I spend a lot more time out of the house. I can play with my nieces and nephews without getting tired. And I see my friends a lot more. My tattoo business is going well and we’re all talking about moving closer to Denver.

It’s a pretty exciting time.

When people ask about the weight-loss surgery, I tell them I wouldn’t change a thing. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I’m sure my friend will feel that way too.

And to make sure he has a good experience, I’ll be at the hospital with him and remind him about the endless opportunities ahead of him.

Shaun

You have a great educational opportunity at Poudre Valley Hospital on April 27 and the Medical Center of the Rockies on April 30 as each hospital hosts an open house on organ and tissue donations.

There are many heroic stories of hope and success in America because someone donated their organs and tissue at the time of death so another person could live.

Donate Life has a campaign underway to get 20 million more Americans to sign up to be donors.

One of the more touching stories comes from Loveland resident Tracy Sander, who lost her 7-year-old son, Colin, following an automobile crash in northern Colorado almost a decade ago.

“When my husband and I were informed at the hospital that he probably would not survive, we were devastated,” Tracy recalls. “We spent as much time as possible in our son’s room holding his hand and talking to him. He was pronounced brain dead at noon the following day.”

Tracy and her husband had to make many decisions in the days following the tragic accident. One of the decisions was to donate their son’s organs.

“One of his kidneys went to a mother of three in Iowa, the other to a father of three in Iowa, and his liver to a 2-year-old boy in Kansas City,” Tracy says. “Colin’s heart was bruised, but the doctors were able to recover his heart valves to implant in other patients.

Now, years later, Tracy says “nothing can ever take away the pain of losing our precious Colin, and we have never regretted our decision to donate.”

“We know Colin is proud,” Tracy says.

I’d like to invite you to attend an open house at either MCR or PVH. If you go to MCR, you’ll want to hear Tracy tell her story. She and other families with members who received or donated organs will have a speaker’s panel at 11 a.m. and noon.

The Rocky Mountain Threads of Life quilt will be displayed at the Medical Center of the Rockies April 30 Donor Open House. Each square of the quilt was created to represent the thoughts and feelings a family has about a loved one who donated or received an organ or tissue.

Right now, 119,000 Americans are waiting for an organ donation. More than 2,200 people in Colorado and Wyoming are waiting for organ transplants.

Eighteen people will die today because they had not received a donation. One organ donor can save up to eight lives.

If you have a Colorado driver’s license, the back of it will give you information on how to reach the Colorado Donor Registry to sign up to be a donor.

Please do so!

Rulon

I encourage you to learn more about the TrueBeam STx that we just put in place at our Harmony Campus in Fort Collins.

This innovative, highly precise new cancer treatment, with highly effective image-guided radiosurgery technology, is the first in northern Colorado, Wyoming and western Nebraska, a hugely positive benefit for patients.

This specialized cancer radiation treatment will be highly used by cancer patients referred to our oncologists by Fort Collins doctors, Loveland doctors, Greeley doctors, and physicians elsewhere throughout our region. It will also be a cornerstone of the Fort Collins cancer center that we are constructing on Harmony Campus.

A letter that says it all…

I want to share a letter I received from Dr. Joshua Petit, medical director of our award-winning oncology program…and radiation oncologist extraordinaire!

Please read his letter below and you’ll learn that the TrueBeam STx is an important addition in the treatment of cancer in our region.

“Dear Rulon:

“This past week marked the culmination of nearly two years of dreaming, planning and great preparation (basically since the moment I brought my practice to PVHS), with the clinical implementation of the TrueBeam STx linear accelerator on the Harmony Campus.

Dr. Joshua Petit, radiation oncologist

“This multi-million dollar, megavoltage, high-precision medical device performs the most technically demanding medical imaging and radiation treatment delivery in the history of radiation oncology. Of course, someday this platform will be surpassed, but at this moment the TrueBeam STx is the most technically advanced linear accelerator in existence, and with this capability and precision comes great responsibility.

“I am pleased to inform you that we have been treating a number of very grateful patients without a single problem. Our success is a testament to the diligent process that has been undertaken by our departmental staff, radiation oncology team, physicists and physicians, and the critical support of the health system, especially JoAnn Lovins (the PVHS cancer service line director), in helping to achieve all of the ambitious goals we set for safe, high quality implementation.

“Going forward, we will not only maintain this focus, we will continue to pursue quality improvement every day.

 “Thank you all for your support of my vision for the future of radiation and cancer care in the system. The marriage of our clinical expertise with a treatment armamentarium that is now equal to any major program will bring superior outcomes for our patients.

“You will continue to hear much more about the new and exciting treatments offered to our patients. More importantly, you will see the positive outcomes as they are formally presented, and you will likely hear about them through friends, family, and other members of the system.”

So….this is Rulon again….how cool is this? We are in good hands. Thanks to all of the PVHS folks who worked so hard to be the first to bring this service to our region!

For you, the reader, I’d like to ask this:

If you have personal stories to share about cancer, please email them to me at pvhs@pvhs.org. I am interested in publishing stories of hope and successes and challenges that cancer patients face.

Rulon

One reason is because many people in health care experience first-hand on a daily basis the way dangerous chemicals and other toxic influences have an effect on the environment and may influence the onset of certain cancers and other diseases.

The Gardens at Poudre Valley Hospital: A perfect Earth Day example of blending the needs of humans with the benefits of nature.

Any clinician with our Loveland medical group or our experts developing the Fort Collins cancer center or our Greeley doctors would be able to tell you how certain toxic aspects of our environment are about cancer and other diseases.

Of course, another important reason for healthcare workers to embrace local Earth Day activities is because it makes good sense to take care of where we live.

I’m proud of the way the Poudre Valley Health System staff has stepped up for this Earth Day. This includes our employees and doctors in Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley.

Employees at the Medical Center of Rockies will assist with a Loveland waterway clean-up project. We produced a short video to encourage PVHS employees to help with the Loveland project.

Members of our Green Team—a group of employees dedicated to making our workplaces more environmentally suitable—hosted an educational forum that featured eco-minded vendors, local compositing and recycling experts, and members of the cities of Fort Collins and Loveland who offered information about community environmental improvement initiatives.

Read this press release to learn how volunteers from the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado planted shrubs and perennial flowers in the Gardens at Poudre Valley Hospital, our therapeutic gardens under development at the Fort Collins hospital.

The Gardens at PVH is a beautiful example of how to design a garden for the melding of human needs with the benefits of nature, a perfect Earth Day philosophy. Patients and their families, community members, and employees will be able to visit the gardens and  experience the healing influences of nature.

I’d like to encourage you to participate in local Earth Day events and keep the spirit of Earth Day within you throughout the year. It’s the right thing to do.

Rulon

On Monday, Thomson Reuters, the nation’s leading independent organization that annually evaluates the performance of 3,000 hospitals, named Poudre Valley Hospital as one of the 100 Top Hospitals in the U.S.

Thomas Reuters names Poudre Valley Hospital one of the nation's 100 Top Hospitals

This is the seventh year since 2001 that PVH has been honored as a 100 Top Hospital.

I couldn’t be prouder of this accomplishment by PVH employees, volunteers and physicians. The accomplishment is due to their caring, compassion and commitment to quality.

In January, Thomson Reuters named Poudre Valley Health System as one of the nation’s top 15 healthcare system—a credit to all of our 5,300 employees and Poudre Valley Medical Group doctors in Fort Collins, Loveland, Greeley, Windsor, Steamboat Springs, and Sterling.

Whether our employees or medical staff members are a Greeley family practice doctor, a Fort Collins gynecologist, a nurse in Fort Collins bariatric surgery, a Loveland diabetes educator, or a housekeeper at MCR, a cook at PVH, a patient financial services representative on Harmony Campus—they all play important roles in our success.

The Thomas Reuters accolades support our opinion that the new health system—University of Colorado Health—under development by PVHS and the University of Colorado Hospital will be the best in the West, if not all of the nation.

The partnership has brought together the best in community medicine with the best in academic medicine.

The University of Colorado Hospital has the reputation as the nation’s top-performing academic hospital. The third University of Colorado Health hospital will be the Medical Center of the Rockies, Loveland, which has distinguished itself among the best in the U.S. in emergency care, patient satisfaction, and cardiac intensive care, and, like PVH, is a Magnet Hospital for Nursing Excellence.

Other news this week:

On April 17, we’re hosting a groundbreaking ceremony for our emergency and surgery center under development in Greeley’s North Village. The center will allow patients to be served close to their homes.

The center will open in November. The emergency services part of the center will house 10 examination rooms, two pediatric exam rooms, a resuscitation room and laboratory, diagnostic imaging, ultrasound, CT, and MRI.

The same-day surgery area will include three preparatory areas, two operating rooms, recovery areas, and an observation room.

I’d like to invite you to attend the ceremony. It begins at 12:30 p.m. on the southeast corner of 71st Avenue and 10th Street. Come and learn what the best in medicine has to offer.

As always, I’m anxious to hear from you…

I like to hear your healthcare stories and what you do to keep you and your family healthy. I’m always searching for information for my blog and for guest writers.

Please add a comment to this blog or send an email to pvhs@pvhs.org.

Rulon

This has been the case with our approach to diabetes education. Diabetes is a major disease that can cause heart problems, strokes, kidney disease, high blood pressure, blindness, neurological problems, and other illnesses.

According to the American Diabetes Association, 25.8 million American children and adults—8.3 percent of our population—have diabetes. With the annual cost of diabetes soaring above $218 billion in the U.S., the disease is a major driver of healthcare expenses.

As PVHS has grown throughout northern Colorado, so has our Center for Diabetes and Outpatient Medical Nutrition Therapy.

In addition to services at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, in the last year we’ve expanded diabetes education services to Loveland, at Medical Center of the Rockies, and Greeley, at Greeley Medical Clinic. This will make it much easier for people with diabetes in those communities, Windsor and the counties of Weld and Larimer to get diabetes education. For information, call 970.495.8205.

The center’s 17 employees include registered nurses and registered dietitians, all specialized in diabetes education and management. They spend considerable time with patients after they are diagnosed by their physicians.

The nurses and dietitians emphasize the importance of healthy blood glucose levels and self-education. They take a team approach by collaborating with the physicians of diabetes patients to provide the best care.

Our program, recognized by the America Diabetes Association since 1996, offers two-day diabetes classes each month to help patients and family members learn more about managing their conditions.

Classes cover such issues as blood-glucose monitoring, meal planning, physical activity, medicines, prevention of low or high blood sugar levels, ways to avoid complications, and what to do if a person with diabetes becomes ill.

The center’s specialists also offer pre-diabetes classes in Fort Collins and Loveland; nutrition therapy for patients treated through our Bariatric Center of the Rockies; and education classes at Poudre Valley Medical Fitness in Windsor’s Water Valley.

In addition, the center hosts such special events as a summer diabetes camp—Camp Sweet Pea—and a Halloween party for children. These are learning opportunities that help kids and parents learn about diabetes.

The education is extremely important because it is essential for people diagnosed with the chronic disease to have the opportunity to learn what the disease is and find out the management tools they can use.

The goal is for patients to be healthy and prevent long-term complications that may occur if their condition is left untreated. Healthy nutrition, physical activity and medications are all important positive influences.

I’ve always been impressed by how passionate our diabetes staff members are about helping patients. Their philosophy is to help patients learn to manage their diabetes, not let their diabetes manage them.

There is much to learn about diabetes. I’d like to encourage you to take time and find out information about the types of diabetes symptoms, treatments, and ways to avoid the disease. Here are some excellent online places to start:

• PVHS Center for Diabetes
• American Diabetes Association
• WebMD Diabetes Health Center
• Mayo Clinic Diabetes

Rulon

That’s why it was especially energizing for us when Dr. Dan Theodorescu from the University of Colorado Cancer Center recently visited Fort Collins to meet with physicians and others.

Dr. Joshua Petit (left), director of Poudre Valley Health System's department of radiation oncology, and Dr. Dan Theodorescu, director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, during Dr. Theodorescu's recent visit to Fort Collins.

Dr. Theodorescu joined the CU Cancer Center in 2010, and it’s easy to see why he was selected as only its second director since its founding in 1985.

His visit was our first by a director from one of our nation’s 40 NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers. We are so fortunate in Colorado to have the caliber of CU Cancer Center serving global cancer discovery.

The fact is, though, that with the creation of University of Colorado Health, together we’ll take discovery and innovation to a whole new level. Work is underway to drive more connections and research opportunities between our cancer programs.

What’s so special about the joining of Poudre Valley Health System and the University of Colorado Hospital to create University of Colorado Health?

Our collaboration will combine the science of a leading academic cancer research center with the patient-centered focus of a leading community-based cancer care system.

Dr. Theodorescu discussed with us a bold vision for our joined cancer services in University of Colorado Health, where the patient care path will be integrated whether a patient is in Denver, Loveland, Cheyenne or anywhere in between.

This means that patients will be able to conveniently access the level of cancer care they need by virtue of connected teams across our academic- and community-based services.

Our integration means cancer researchers will gain much-needed access to more study participants by bringing more clinical trials to communities throughout northern Colorado, southern Wyoming and western Nebraska.

It also means University of Colorado Health cancer experts – whether in Aurora, Greeley, Loveland, or Fort Collins – will have the chance to share ideas and advance cancer cure by working together more often.

The Poudre Valley Cancer Network is expected to serve as a regional center of excellence and major resource hub in Dr. Theodorescu’s proposed growth model.

Dr. Theodorescu calls this vision a two-pillar program, leveraging our respective strengths to broaden cancer care offerings across our new system.

It’s our hope that we’ll soon extend the model to a three-pillar one, furthering the network to include Memorial Health System in Colorado Springs.

Individuals of vision have a way of framing growth and change so that people can recognize the chance to make something great. Dr. Theodorescu’s vision and enthusiasm left us all abuzz at our chance to create a better model for cancer care and discovery in Colorado.

On behalf of our cancer program physicians and staff, I’d like to thank Dr. Theodorescu for making the time to get to know us better. We look forward to working with you and your CU Cancer Center team.

For more information, go to the site for Colorado Cancer Blogs and read this blog.

Rulon

I wrote about this in a recent blog that focused on our Community Paramedic Program, and I alluded to the olden days of doctors arriving in a horse-drawn carriage at your front porch and climbing down, black medical bag in hand, to enter your home and care for your loved ones.

For much of the last half of the 1900s, this definitely wasn’t the case. A patient was expected to travel to physicians, no matter how far or how inconvenient it was for the sick person.

Thankfully, that model of care has moved off into the horizon, far, far away, and hopefully it’ll never wander back our way.

The Greeley Tribune recently published an excellent feature article about the frequent travels of two oncology physicians who have journeyed eastward for decades to treat patients in rural communities.

Dr. Kemme

The two featured physicians were Dr. Douglas Kemme, a physician with the Medical Clinic at Centerra, Loveland, who once a month motors to Yuma, on the eastern plains of Colorado, and Grant, Neb., and Dr. Thomas Lininger, a Greeley Medical Clinic physician who has  traveled to Sterling on a weekly basis for 35 years. As the Tribune pointed out, “That’s the equivalent of around the globe at least once.”

Now, that’s commitment to patients!

I’d like to offer some excerpts from the Tribune story as a way to tell you about the motivation. The staff reporter, Dan England, wrote:

“It doesn’t make much business sense to continue to travel to Yuma, he (Dr. Kemme) said. But there is something about those small towns. He sees the names of players on the basketball teams in store windows. Everybody is just so nice. They seem to appreciate him even more than the grateful patients in Greeley.”

Dr. Lininger

“…he wants his patients to be treated in their towns because that goes along with everything else he believes about how medicine works.

“…he said, ‘I see less patients, and I spend more time with them. A family physician might see three times the patients I do in one day. You have to have that personal contact. I want to know the names of their spouses and dogs.’”

PVHS does not have a policy requiring specialty physicians to go to rural areas to treat patients. That decision is left to individual doctors and their clinics.

Let me offer you an example of how dedicated city-based physicians are in traveling to rural areas to offer patient care. One of the pioneers in Fort Collins was Dr. Gary Luckasen, a founder of the Heart Center of the Rockies. The journeying to rural areas began in 1980 and now HCOR physicians routinely travel to small communities on the prairies and in the mountains.

“There was a huge gap that we saw and decided to fill,” Dr. Luckasen recalls. “Going to the areas where patients live has worked out well for the patients and their families. Our coming to them causes considerably less physical, emotional and medical stress on the patient.”

Dr. Luckasen

I asked our physician outreach department to gather some facts to give a perspective on how extensively the specialty physicians on our medical staff travel to rural areas to hold clinics. “Clinics,” by the way, is what we call these visits; physicians will see patients in previously arranged clinic locations like local physician offices or community hospitals in the rural towns.

Here’s the info for 2011:

• Our physicians received a total of 12,229 patient visits in rural areas.

• The Colorado communities included Brush, Craig, Estes Park, Fort Morgan, Grandby, Holyoke, Kremmling, Steamboat Springs, Sterling, Walden, Wray, and Yuma. The Nebraska communities were Alliance, Grant and Sidney.

• The medical specialties taken to patients were cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, general surgery, nephrology, neurology, oncology, and pulmonology. All of these are specialties generally not found in small communities, where, typically, family medicine is the primary avenue for medical care.

Our director of physician outreach services, Erica DeMint, offers this perspective on why local physicians hold rural clinics:

“The shortage of medical services is a big issue in rural communities. Local hospitals and clinics are often staffed by family physicians who are stretched to provide care across a wide spectrum of conditions. The on-site specialty clinics that our physicians hold augment services already available to patients and families where they need it the most—close to home.

“Working closely with the existing local physicians and other healthcare providers in the rural communities to build relationships enhances patient care and provides access to additional valuable patient resources that may be unavailable locally, such as diabetes education, information about bariatric services and cardiac device monitoring,” Erica concludes.

I’d like to say thank you to all of the physicians who go the extra mile (literally!) to offer care to rural residents. In conjunction with local physicians in these communities, they provide services that will help to keep the people in our region healthy.

Rulon

But seldom are nurses recognized for their important work.

There is one great form of recognition, though. Each year the nursing profession in Colorado honors its own by presenting the Nightingale Award for Excellence in Human Caring to the six top registered nurses in the state.

Florence Nightingale, circa 1858.

The award was founded in 1985 by the University of Colorado to recognize registered nurses whose performances echo the quality and dedication of Florence Nightingale. The award, now presented by the Colorado Nurses Association, is designed to honor nurses who demonstrate the uppermost levels of leadership, advocacy and innovation.

Florence Nightingale was the daughter of a wealthy British family who entered the nursing field in 1845. She did this despite her family’s strong objections.

Today, we can gaze back and say we’re fortunate to have had such a hardy, giving person, with such a pioneering spirit, in the medical field. She helped put the nursing profession on track to become what it is today. Thanks to her efforts and insights, hospital sanitation methods were reformed and greatly improved.

Poudre Valley Health System registered nurses have been well-represented at the winners’ podium for the statewide Nightingale Award. We also have had many finalists represented on the statewide level.

Our nurses who received the statewide honor in previous years were Jo zumBrunnen, Maureen Fields, Laura Lambird, Nancy Mershon, and Susan Markley Miller.

Their work assignments range from being a nursing director (Jo) and operating room nurse (Laura) to an oncology nurse (Maureen), gastronenterology nurse (Nancy) and cardiac specialist nurse (Susan).

Nightingale honorees are selected by a thorough grassroots process.

Nominations are developed by the colleagues, patients and family or friends of nurses. Nominations are sent to one of the appropriate six regional nurse organizations throughout the state. The nominations consist of essays about the nurse and letters of recommendation, and are reviewed on the regional level.

Each region hosts an awards ceremony where regional winners are nominated to compete for the six statewide awards. Our regional ceremony is held by the Centennial Area Health Education Center, which covers 10 counties in northeastern Colorado. The CAHEC also recognizes licensed practical nurses who are nominated through a similar process. However, LPNs don’t compete in the statewide Nightingale competition.

The CAHEC ceremony will be March 9 in Loveland, while the statewide ceremony will be May 19 in Denver.

This year we have 10 registered nurses nominated in the regional competition for becoming a finalist for the Nightingale honor. Here’s information on each:

• Tamara Bockman, charge nurse in the Medical Center of the Rockies cardiac unit, was nominated for her team work, caring and ability to motivate others.
• Mona Brower, an emergency room nurse at Poudre Valley Hospital, was recognized by colleagues for the way she provides comfort, compassion and stability for her patients.
• Jennifer Ellis, who works in the PVH resource pool, was nominated for her outstanding care of patients and their families. (A note of explanation: When a nurse works in the resource pool, that means she or he may work in a variety of nursing departments during various shifts rather than being assigned to only one department.)
• Another resource pool nurse, Tonya Gilmore, is known for the kindness and compassion that she demonstrates to MCR patients.
• A PVH operating room nurse, Barbara Hardes, is a nurse educator who diligently pursues excellence not only in patient care but also in helping colleagues improve their skills.
• Sue Larsen has held many patient-care positions during her 36 years in the profession. Recently, she has been a clinical quality specialist for our women and family services and is a strong advocate of quality care.
• Another long-time nurse, Cheryl Milner, works in PVH’s surgical services and is highly respected for her grace and commitment to patients and improving health care.
• Alene Nitzky, a PVH outpatient oncology nurse, is known for her passion for writing and giving presentations on health topics, particularly cancer, for the public. Alene also runs ultramarathons (100+ miles) to raise funds for our campaign to build a regional cancer center.
• Susan Webster, a nurse in our health system for 24 years, has been a leader in improving emergency services for the survivors of sexual assault. Susan championed an effort to start the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program within PVHS.
• Karen Wikholm, an extremely talented nurse who works in general surgery for Poudre Valley Medical Group.

Each nurse is known for specific personal qualities and professional commitments. But that is only part of the story. Each is highly educated. Each has had extreme success in caring for patients.

And each is the type of nurse who provides the high-quality care, compassion, dedication, advocacy, and innovation that any person with a healthcare need would want.

I wish each of the nine nurses the best of luck in the Nightingale competition. Each one is a Florence Nightingale in her own right!

Rulon

Health care in the coming years will look considerably different than it does today due to healthcare reform legislation passed in March 2010 by congress.

One major improvement will be the reshaping of the current model where hospitals are set up to keep patients coming in for service. In the future, the model will shift to the goal of keeping people out of hospitals by helping them maintain their health. That’ll be a huge improvement in the way of approaching health care!

Members of our Community Paramedic Program: Lisa Beard (left), Julie Scott, Sharon Lowry (right), and Julie Bower (in front).

Poudre Valley Health System is already moving in that direction. We have a free Nurse Is In program where each month our community health nurses go to three northern Colorado locations to help people monitor blood pressure, answer medical questions and offer basic health information. Our Aspen Club sponsors many free or low-cost preventive programs for older adults, while our Healthy Kids Club focuses on the health of youth. We also have many other community-based programs and public classes on wellness topics.

One of our efforts that recently received public attention is the Community Paramedic Program. The Coloradoan in Fort Collins, Colo., published a lengthy feature article about the free program Feb. 10 and followed up with a Feb. 12 editorial. In addition, Style Magazine in Fort Collins will soon publish an article about the program.

The program is among the first wave of changes in the way paramedics and emergency medical technicians throughout the nation conduct their work.

Traditionally, paramedics and EMT focus on responding to emergencies, but, since there typically aren’t medical emergencies going on constantly, they sometimes have periods of available time.

Much to their credit, our emergency responders decided to use these periods to develop the Community Paramedic Program to offer basic health screenings to people in their own homes.

The paramedics and EMTs provide in-home blood pressure checks and flu vaccinations. They also do risk assessments designed to help keep people from falling in their homes. In addition, they assist people who have questions about medications.

While all of these are great benefits, for some people the social interaction with the emergency responders is just as important. In some cases, people are home-bound and something as simple as a visitor’s smile and kinds words can help with health. The social interaction also gives emergency responders the opportunity to assess if a person’s mood or mental state have changed.

“We do what we can to help people remain healthy in their homes where they are more comfortable,” said Ted Beckman, a paramedic shift supervisor who is the program’s coordinator. “Preventive programs similar to ours are the future of health care throughout the United States.”

The Community Paramedic Program isn’t meant to replace home-visits by nurses or therapists or a visit to a doctor’s office or the need to call 911. Rather, the program is an excellent option that can save people from unnecessarily leaving their homes.

Our emergency responders launched this program in the fall of 2010. They estimate the program could have prevented up to 18,000 emergency room visits to Poudre Valley Hospital and the Medical Center of the Rockies in 2011. This would have been a significant, positive impact on the two ERs that treated a total of 52,000 patients last year.

Four emergency responders conduct our Community Paramedic Program. They will receive additional training this month in preparation of providing 24-hour coverage. They do the program in conjunction with the Aspen Club, which helps them identify persons who may want to participate. (Community members interested in receiving home visits should contact the Aspen Club, 495-8560.)

When I think about our program, thoughts of the old days to come to mind—back to when doctors in horse-drawn buggies rolled up to the porch steps and the doctor climbed down, black medical bag in hand, to do a home visit.

Those days are long-gone, of course. But some important vestiges remain.

Horse-drawn buggies have been replaced by ambulances that come visiting without emergency lights and sirens going—but the enthusiasm to care for people in their own homes remains.

Rulon