September 2021
Supporting School-Based Access to Care

by Ross Brooks, CEO, patient

On behalf of our Board of Directors and staff, we were thrilled to celebrate the grand opening of our newest school-based health center in the Glenwood Springs High School on August 24, 2021. Mountain Family Health Centers, in partnership with the Roaring Fork School District, opened our sixth school-based health center welcoming students to receive integrated medical, behavioral, and dental healthcare services.

According to Roaring Fork School District Superintendent and Mountain Family Board Member Rob Stein: “Offering health services in school where our students spend most of their time is a convenient and safe means of removing barriers to access and ensuring our students receive the care they need to be healthy and successful in school and life.”


Double or Triple Your Gift
by Jan Jennings, Director of Development

We are pleased to share with you that the 2020 Rescue Fund has renewed its matching gift with Mountain Family’s Health For All Fund for the 2022 fiscal year, which began June 1, 2021.
 
Every gift to Mountain Family Health Centers received by June 1, 2022 will be matched by the 2020 Rescue Fund up to a total of $100,000. 
 
Your gift will impact the lives of 22,000 men, women and children under our care in Pitkin, Garfield, and Eagle Counties, many of whom are still dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
 
Gifts of $1 to $999 will be triple matched by the 2020 Rescue Fund. A $25 gift becomes $75; a $100 gift becomes $300; and a $300 gift becomes $900.
 
Gifts of $1,000 will be double matched. A gift of $1,000 becomes $2,000; a gift of $2,000 becomes $4,000; and a gift of $5,000 becomes $10,000.
 
Your gift will help us advance our mission to improve the health of our community by providing equitable and affordable medical, behavioral, and dental healthcare for all.
 
To give online, click the box below or visit www.mountainfamily.org.
 
Alternatively, please send your tax-deductible contribution to Ross Brooks, CEO, Mountain Family Health Centers, 2700 Gilstrap Court, #100, Glenwood Springs, CO 81601.
 
If you have any questions, please contact Jan Jennings, Director of Development, at (970) 989-1134. 
 
Thank you for your steadfast support. 



For more information on giving:

Jan Jennings
Director of Development
(970) 989-1134
Honoring Dr. Tonozzi's 22 Years of Service to Mountain Family Health Center Patients and Communities
by Ross Brooks, CEO, patient

Please join me in celebrating Dr. Chris Tonozzi’s 22 years of providing high-quality, compassionate, primary care to our patients and communities. Dr. Tonozzi’s passion for providing care to the community he’s from is largely responsible for why Mountain Family exists in Western Colorado. Fresh out of medical school and residency, Chris started working to expand the community health center model to Western Colorado, which in the mid-1990s, had no community health center presence serving the Western part of our state. Chris began to ethically influence other community health center systems and leaders to expand care westward, and in 1998-1999, he was a leading part of the team that successfully launched Mountain Family Health Center’s first Western Slope community health center in Glenwood Springs.

The Glenwood Springs clinic started small, with several staff, and humble roots. Today, after more than two decades of care and leadership from Dr. Tonozzi, MFHC’s Glenwood Springs clinic has blossomed into MFHC’s largest integrated medical, behavioral, and dental healthcare home amongst MFHC’s now 10 clinic sites in Western Colorado. In the past 18 months, MFHC Glenwood Springs has provided more than 32,000 patient visits to more than 7,200 unique patients from our community.


Welcome Dr. Kim Maroney, Site Based Medical Director, School Based Health Centers
by Kim Maroney, MD

The position as the Site Medical Director for the School Based Health Centers is an exciting opportunity for me for a couple of reasons: First – I love a challenge and these six sites are all essentially start up clinics with their own personality. I can put my experience in building my own practice in Texas, serving as a preceptor for medical assistants and nurse practitioners, and working in so many different settings to use. Second – it is extremely rewarding to me to empower our most precious resource, our youth, and I am excited to begin this new adventure helping the children of the local schools to stay healthy and make good, educated choices regarding their spiritual, mental, and physical health.
 
Combining medical, dental, and behavioral health in cooperation with the school district staff really lets us use an interdisciplinary approach to caring for these students. Between the different practices we often identify students’ other needs whether it be psychological, medical, dental, and sometimes even financial. School Based Health Centers are innovative, and I hope once we develop the current sites into successful clinics, we can encourage other communities to adopt similar practices to invest in their youth. 


Coloradans with Special Circumstances Can Enroll

Connect for Health Colorado, the state’s official health insurance marketplace, has opened a new Uninsured Enrollment Period to help as many people as possible protect their health and safety. Anyone with special circumstances can enroll during this time, which means you must have a qualifying event to sign up. Open Enrollment for the general public will begin November 1, 2021. As a reminder, Connect for Health Colorado is the only place where Coloradans can apply for financial assistance to lower the cost of health insurance.

If you need help navigating the enrollment process, give us a call at 833-279-6627 or email us at EnrollmentHelp@mountainfamily.org.

Vaccine Myth Busting with Dr. Natasha Knight
Click here to watch all vaccine myth busting videos. Produced by Pitkin County Government

COVID-19 Vaccine Update
As we head into the fall and see an uptick in cases of the Delta variant throughout our service area, getting vaccinated is more critical than ever. As of September 7, MFHC has provided 9,758 vaccines to our community members, but based on community wide data, we know that there are many left to be vaccinated. We are providing vaccinations at our Rifle, Glenwood Springs, Basalt and Edwards locations every day of operation and you can schedule an appointment just for your vaccine or you can receive it as part of your annual check-up. Your health is important to us, so we are making sure that as many barriers as possible are removed in order to ensure that you have access to this life-saving vaccine.
 
For those who are already vaccinated and wondering about a booster there is still more to come. The CDC is currently only recommending boosters for those who are immunocompromised and right now these are the only patients we are providing booster shots to. Keep an eye on our website and Facebook page for updates on this as we will share whenever there are changes to the CDC recommendations that you should know about.

If you are interested in a booster shot, please click here for the Booster Interest Form.

Pfizer Vaccine Approved by FDA; MFHC Requires Vaccination for All Staff
shot_preparation.jpg
by Ross Brooks, CEO, patient

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and as a community healthcare provider, Mountain Family Health Center’s (MFHC) top priority is keeping patients, employees and visitors safe. While we strive to empower our staff to achieve this goal through local efforts, these are unprecedented times, which require us to implement a mandatory COVID vaccination policy unilaterally across the organization for the safety of our patients and staff.

In the last month, we have seen the cases of COVID-19 spike in our service areas, with the
majority of those infections believed to be the Delta variant. Our regional hospitals are seeing dramatic increases in the numbers admitted for COVID-19. Of those in the hospital for COVID19, the vast majority are unvaccinated. Those who have been vaccinated and are in the hospital are less likely to be in the ICU.


Words to Remember
“Indeed, the challenge of the new millennium is surely to find ways to achieve international – or better, intercommunity – cooperation wherein human diversity is acknowledged and the rights of all are respected.”

 – The Dalai Lama
We recently held our Annual Organizational Picnic and Kickball Game and had a super time!
Congratulations to our September Award Winners
Mariposa Award Winner:
Wilber Mendez

by Kelly Ketzenbarger, RN

"Where do I start? Wil is truly one of a kind. He is a wonderful person, through and through.  Wil is immensely valuable to Mountain Family. I have no doubt that he will take the Edwards clinic to a new level. He will share his experience, knowledge, energy, compassion, innovation, and humor just as he did with Glenwood. He will shine brilliantly. Wil gives 200% every single day he comes to work. He readily takes on anything that is asked of him. He goes out of his way to help anyone and everyone. He cares deeply for the well-being of our patients. He has a bedside manner that eases our patients’ pain, both physically and emotionally. He assists the providers while, at the same time, absorbing all their knowledge. Wil’s eagerness to learn and grow is infectious. He helps the medical assistants whenever they need him. They all love him. He influences the nurses to rise to the top of their profession. He continually brings innovative ideas to elevate the nursing role.  In Edwards, as the clinic nurse facilitator, he will support the nurses and have their back no matter what. He will bring amazing ideas. He will teach others. And he will make everyone laugh.  I can’t express in words how sad I am to lose Wil at Glenwood. But I am so very grateful I was able to work with him side by side. The transfer to Edwards is exactly what needs to happen and is much deserved.  Wil, I have the highest respect for you as a nurse. I thoroughly enjoy you as a friend. And I love you like a son."


Exemplary Care Award Winner:
Kelly Ketzenbarger

by Sandy Deveny, MD

"She saw a complex care patient with me who was just released from the hospital where he was treated for multiple chronic conditions. He was found to have chronic bilateral foot wounds which were dressed at the hospital two days prior and was referred to the wound clinic but had yet to go. He was having difficulty changing the dressings so his feet were a mess and he was unable to weight bear dur to pain. He and his partner were homeless, living out of their car which he drove over Independence Pass to get here. He was brought back in a wheelchair. Last patient of the day, Kelly spent a great deal of time doing an excellent dressing change, to include padding so he could ambulate. She also gave them websites and phone numbers to call for housing for the night. Her incredible care after a busy day is a truly admirable. We are so fortunate to have Kelly on our team.

What We're Reading
What Is Hispanic Heritage Month—and Who Celebrates It?

Mark your calendars for September 15 through October 15

Hispanic Heritage Month 2021 begins on Wednesday, September 15, and ends on October 15. While you never have to wait for an annual event to take pride in your ethnic background, for Hispanic Americans, the purpose of those four weeks is to honor their respective cultures and the histories behind them. And by “Hispanic Americans,” we mean those who self-identify as Hispanic. (The terms Hispanic and Latino are not quite interchangeable, though many people identify as both.) It’s a period meant for recognition, education, and celebration, similar to Black History Month in February, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May, or LGBTQ Pride Month in June.


How coronavirus vaccines still help people who already had COVID-19

Past coronavirus infections offer some protection, but vaccines give the immune system a boost

Some people who have been infected with coronavirus have questioned whether they really need vaccines. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people get vaccinated regardless of whether they’ve already had COVID-19. That’s in part because it’s still unclear how long immunity lasts after an infection. Studies have shown that antibodies hang around in the blood for at least eight months after getting sick, but some recovered patients have gotten reinfected (SN: 6/11/21; SN: 8/24/20).