When Denver pediatrician Dr. Larry Wolk founded his nonprofit Rocky Mountain Youth Clinics in 1996, he scarcely could have foreseen the complex challenges facing Colorado kids nearly two decades later.
Not only are there about 90,000 children in the state without a “medical home” — or a healthcare provider they see regularly — but the ever-expanding definition of pediatric wellness now includes everything from behavioral counseling and literacy to affordable housing and childcare options for working parents.
“The common denominator is low income,” said Jessica Dunbar, executive director of Every Child Pediatrics, the new name of Rocky Mountain Youth Clinics following a summer 2018 rebranding.
Regardless of its name, Dunbar’s organization is on track to serve more than 22,000 kids with healthcare services this year, following double-digit growth in nearly every category, including vaccinations (up 21 percent as compared with 2016), dental hygiene visits (up 78 percent), and behavioral health counseling (an astounding 97 percent increase).
As a recipient of The Denver Post Community Foundation’s Season to Share campaign, Every Child Pediatrics is working to meet the needs of all Colorado children, regardless of where they live — not just in wellness visits and immunizations, but behavioral health counseling, dental care, nutrition, healthy lifestyle programs, and “connections to support services such as housing and transportation,” Dunbar said.
It’s a model that has worked well for them, evolving over the years to include a broader view of what kids need to thrive, as opposed to just mending scraped knees and stuffy noses.
The sniffles and coughs are there too, of course. On a recent weekday at the Thornton clinic, Dunbar strolled past rooms decorated with Marvel’s Avengers and Denver Broncos logos — cozy, colorfully appointed spots where families can feel safe while getting care. Across the hallway, call-center workers fielded questions and appointments for the organization’s metro-area locations.
Besides completing the biggest rebranding in its history, Every Child Pediatrics this summer opened a new Lakewood office, bringing its total number of clinics to four, with locations in Thornton, Denver and Aurora. That helps the organization continue to host more than 62,000 medical visits (as it did last year) and provide in excess of $800,000 of uncompensated care in addition to its Medicaid-assisted services, the latter of which cover about 70 percent of its patients.
So where does Every Child go from here — beside focusing on raising funds from corporate donors, individuals and foundations?
Straight to where its patients live, work and go to school, as it turns out.
“We’ve been exploring telemedicine to expand access,” Dunbar said, citing a pilot program in Fort Collins that features a mobile clinic stationed at high-need high schools which can conference with other providers. The goal is to conduct exams, diagnose problems and come up with treatment plans without having to leave the school.
Wolk, who founded the organization in 1996 and went on to become the director of the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment, would no doubt support that optimism, regardless of the increasingly complex challenges.
“People here really live and breathe the mission,” Dunbar said.
