Rural health care gets $100,000 infusion in Pikes Peak area

Two rural health clinics in the Pikes Peak area are receiving $50,000 each to beef up their operations, part of a $2 million grant distribution to improve health care throughout rural Colorado.

The Colorado Rural Health Care Grant Program award to Eastern Plains Medical Clinic in Calhan marks the first time an El Paso County facility has received money through the 4-year-old program.

The grant to the Cripple Creek-Victor Mountain Health Center is the second for a facility in Teller County. In 2008, a $50,000 grant went toward technology and facility upgrades at the Family Health Center in Divide. Both are part of Peak Vista Community Health Centers.

Many of this year’s grant recipients, including Eastern Plains, will use the money to beef up their health information technology. Specifically, Eastern Plains will put the money toward electronic medical records, which will help the clinic better communicate with laboratories and hospitals, keep track of children’s vaccination histories and manage patients’ medications.

“It’s huge,” said Penni Wilson, practice manager for Eastern Plains, which has about 3,000 patients and is the only family/primary care operation in eastern El Paso County. “We’re a rural health care facility, and 65 percent of our patients are Medicare or Medicaid, so reimbursement is lower for us. To be able to put something in place out here is wonderful.”

Patients will also be able to get their hands on their medical records faster, Wilson said.

“It will expedite what they need,” she said. “There’s no need to mail records.”

Eastern Plains applied for a grant last year, but didn’t get it, Wilson said.

The Cripple Creek-Victor Mountain Health Center will use its grant for an expansion. The center operates out of the school nurse’s office at Cresson Elementary School and offers physicals, care for sick children, behavioral health care and counseling to about 500 students and their siblings, up to 21 years old, who live in the Cripple Creek-Victor school district. The center accepts Medicaid patients and those covered by state programs for low-income families, and offers sliding scale fees.

“We anticipate growing that location soon because of the demand for services,” Peak Vista spokeswoman Lynn Pelz said in an e-mail.

The Colorado Rural Health Care Grant Program started in August 2007 with a $7.5 million infusion from insurance giant UnitedHealthcare. The grants are administered by the Colorado Rural Health Center, a 20-year-old nonprofit that serves as the State Office of Rural Health.

This year, 54 grants ranging from $8,000 to $50,000 went to medical, mental health and dental clinics and public health departments in 42 Colorado counties.