Similar missions give birth to merger
Post Independent Staff
GLENWOOD SPRINGS ” Two nonprofit health organizations offering medical care to low-income patients announced their merger Monday morning.
“This has been two years in the works,” said David Adamson, director of Western Slope operations of Mountain Family Health Center.
Mountain Family Health Center and Healthy Beginnings will be called the Mountain Family Pre-natal Program when the merger becomes official June 1.
Mountain Family Health Center, located across Blake Avenue from Valley View Hospital, has been providing quality health care to those with limited income for five years in Glenwood Springs. Last year alone, Mountain Family saw 4,000 patients, for a total of 14,000 patient visits.
For the past 13 years, Healthy Beginnings has provided pre-natal care to low-income mothers and their infants. The agency’s work has helped pregnant women with limited resources receive the health care they need.
Mountain Family does not perform any prenatal care, which was a main reason why the two groups merged.
“We are passing the mantle to Mountain Family,” said Wanda Berryman, director of Healthy Beginnings. “Our community is so fortunate that the youngest members of our community will continue to be served.”
“We see the same clients,” Adamson said. “So it makes sense for us to start with prenatal care and continue through child and adult health care.”
Berryman said the collaborative efforts between several groups, including Healthy Beginnings and Mountain Family, have contributed to successfully treating the region’s low-income population.
Even though Healthy Beginnings’ name will change and its administration will fall under Mountain Family’s direction, Berryman and her staff will continue to operate in their existing space, in the Garfield County Social Services building, just south of Valley View Hospital on Blake Avenue.
Glenwood’s Mountain Family Health Center is one of three Mountain Family centers in Colorado. The other two locations are in Nederland and Blackhawk, and opened in 1978.
Glenwood’s Mountain Family operation received a $245,000 grant Thursday from the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy, which will allow Mountain Valley to add more medical staff, and will enable the center to care for an additional 1,000 patients. The money will also allow 400 more women to receive services in its pre-natal program and will help pay for new pre-natal medical equipment.
Contact Carrie Click: 945-8515, ext. 518
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