When the pandemic hit last year, Peak Vista Community Health Centers saw an increase in demand for COVID testing and a decrease in office visits.
One thing that remained constant in the chaos that was 2020: its donors.
"Normally, in exchange for their support, our donors get something, like a breakfast," said Pam McManus, the nonprofit's CEO. "Last year they got nothing, and yet they showed up. They knew we really needed the help."
This year Peak Vista will celebrate its 50th year in service — likely without fanfare, due to COVID. That's a half century of providing medical, dental, pharmaceutical and, as of late, behavioral health care to southern Coloradans of all ages, regardless of income.
The organization has come a long way from serving a handful of patients two evenings a week in donated exam rooms, to 93,000 patients with access barriers in 28 outpatient centers in Colorado's Pikes Peak and east central plains regions, McManus said.
For some, those access barriers are geographic. "We're the only provider in Divide, the only dentist in Flagler," McManus said.
For other's, it's poverty or a lack of health insurance, though not all patients requiring reduced-cost medical care are jobless, she noted.
"In most cases they're working, working really hard, sometimes two or three jobs," she said. "It's just that their employer doesn't carry insurance, or they can't afford it."
In such cases, Peak Vista uses a sliding scale to ensure everyone who needs health care can access it.
"That sliding scale is for all of our services — we work really hard so that no one is turned away for financial reasons. No matter what their pay, our scope of services is the same."
The price tag of such generosity: In 2019, the organization provided more than $13 million in charity care.
That need will persist, if not increase, in the year ahead, as the organization encourages patients to return to primary care and participates in the effort to vaccinate those 70 and older.
"If someone, even if they're not our patient, needs to be seen, give us a call. We'll figure it out and make sure they're seen," McManus said.
"We're a community partner. We'll do whatever needs to be done so the community is safe and healthy."
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Empty Stocking Fund: Peak Vista calls on donors to continue generosity - Colorado Springs Gazette
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