About The Colorado Network

The Colorado Network is a collaborative effort between rural hospitals in Colorado and their associated physicians. Many challenges in today's healthcare environment are even more challenging in rural areas. Rural communities, while not isolated, can be tough to move in and out of during bad weather. Goods and services that come to rural communities must come at a premium cost of transportation and travel. Making sure rural communities have the right number of physicians in the specialties needed is often a problem not faced in larger urban areas where physician supply is not an issue. The Colorado Network exists to assist hospitals, physicians and patients in rural Colorado meeting these challenges in order to maintain a healthcare system in small towns that meets the needs of all concerned.

Network Communities

The hospitals and physicians in Meeker, Glenwood Springs, Montrose, Salida, Pueblo (Parkview Medical Center) Trinidad, La Junta and Lamar are part of The Colorado Network. These eight hospitals and over 200 affiliated physicians provide service to a rural population of over 300,000 persons. In order to assure patients of the necessary continuum of care, these hospitals and physicians also maintain referral and consulting relationships with higher level tertiary care centers in Colorado and elsewhere. A map is included on this website which shows the location of members of the Network and their service areas.

The Vision

"To create a healthcare network sought after by payers, employers, and patients because of its quality and value."

The Mission

"The Colorado Network is a community of healthcare delivery systems seeking optimum solutions to shared challenges and opportunities for its members and their communities to improve access to and quality of healthcare services, maximize economies of scale and effort, and to enhance the influence of its members through a coordinated effort."

What We Do

For the Network members, this means sharing of effort in the delivery of care through shared technology where we can, shared specialty personnel where possible and the sharing of professional expertise in the areas of managed care contracting, legal issues, compliance with regulations and more.

Another cooperative effort among the members of The Colorado Network is ongoing monitoring of quality and financial measures for the care provided to residents of the Network communities. Teams of experts from across the Network cooperate in measuring the quality of care using national and state comparisons to make sure that the highest quality services possible are offered to patients in the most cost effective manner. These shared activities are some of the many ways in which local providers can assure their communities that the local healthcare services available in these rural Colorado communities meet the needs of local patients both now and in the future.

Rural healthcare systems have developed over many years to the point where residents in the most far-flung locations can be assured of state of the art medical care. Like the local schools and other vital community services, healthcare at the local level is a cornerstone to the overall health of the community both in physical and economic terms. A vital healthcare system promotes the economic development of the community. With so many challenges facing small hospitals and their physicians, The Colorado Network aims to support the strength of the local healthcare providers for the benefit of their communities.

John Leavitt
President