The Planned Parenthood health center in Glenwood Springs will reopen on Oct. 5, just over two months after it paused in-person services.
A staffing shortage prompted the temporary closure, while the organization found and trained a new provider. Its previous nurse practitioner left the clinic in July.
Now, with a new provider trained and building renovations completed, staff said they’re excited to welcome back new and returning patients.
“I have just been delighted that every patient who's contacted us has gotten individualized support for their continuum of care, or they're already booking out their appointments for early to mid-October,” said Adrienne Mansanares, CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.
The clinic hasn’t disclosed the name of its new provider, but Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains said she is from the Western Slope and previously worked for Planned Parenthood.
All previous staff members will remain, and the clinic is hiring an additional medical assistant.
Renovations during the closure included the addition of a fourth exam room, which Planned Parenthood said will allow them to see more patients. Mansanares added that the clinic should be able to accommodate any patients seeking care.
When the closure was first announced, some patients expressed concerns about the limits of virtual care or the inconvenience of finding another in-person provider.
As a longtime patient of the Glenwood Springs clinic, Erika Gomez has received birth control and family planning services.
She said the closure was like losing a favorite hairstylist who you trust and never want to leave.
“There's people in Carbondale or Glenwood who might be as good,” Gomez said. “But … I've been with her for 15 years.”
During the closure, patients had to find other medical providers in the area for in-person services like STI screenings or long-term contraception, like IUDs and implants.
The increased demand had a ripple effect, according to Mary Glode, a gynecologist at Grand River Health in Rifle.
“The healthcare infrastructure in our area has not expanded at the rate of population expansion,” Glode said. “So taking away any practitioner in the women's health realm is going to increase wait times.”
But the biggest impact at Grand River, Glode said, was an increase in emergency room patients looking for medication abortions. She said the patients didn’t know where to go after the Planned Parenthood clinic closed. However, due to regulations around mifepristone, Grand River could not provide the medication.
Other patients seeking contraception and family planning services drove an hour upvalley to Aspen Community Health. The clinic, which serves mostly uninsured and Medicaid patients, has been a fallback option for women’s health services.
“[We are] the safety net women's health and public health clinic for the Aspen community,” said the clinic’s interim executive director, Billy Wynne.
Finding access to less commonly offered services, like hormone replacement therapy for transgender patients, was a top concern for the Glenwood Springs clinic, Mansanares said.
“We really focused very closely to make sure that if they could still access those hormones [so] … that none of their care was delayed or suspended during this time.”
In the interim, Mansanares said Planned Parenthood provided telehealth options and helped transgender patients schedule appointments at its Front Range clinics.
However, the clinic will experience an additional delay in offering in-person, gender-affirming hormone therapy. The new provider needs to secure a certification to provide those services, Mansanares said, which should happen at the end of October.
Amid Medicaid cuts and other challenges to reproductive care, Mansanares said Planned Parenthood is hoping to keep the clinic up and running as a crucial resource on the Western Slope.
“We are continually assessing our own resiliency and looking for ways to strengthen our health centers, to support our staff and to minimize disruptions to care for this incredible community that depends on us,” she said.
