Optum closed its clinic in Fountain last week, cutting into options for primary care in the growing town. 

The health care company said in a written statement the physician who worked at the Fontaine Boulevard location moved and its other employees who were working at the primary care clinic have been assigned to other clinic locations. 

Patients have the option to transfer to a location off Lake and Nevada avenues or a location near Barnes Road and Powers Boulevard 

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The more convenient Optum clinic option is 6 miles north in Colorado Springs, where many Fountain residents have to seek care anyway. 

“We just desperately need health care here,” said Liz Rosenbaum, a health insurance broker in Fountain. 

Primary care doctors in Fountain tend to not accept new patients right away and so Fountain residents face long wait times for local care, she said.  

Peak Vista Community Health Centers offers some primary care in Fountain through its staff physician assistants. The nonprofit health care provider specializes in working with underserved populations and offers a sliding fee scale. 

But Rosenbaum said the community is in need of specialists who can treat those exposed to high levels of PFAS and need to see gastroenterologists, kidney specialists and doctors who can treat immune disorders.  

She noted there aren’t any community hospitals south of Platte Avenue. The Evans Army Community on Fort Carson is not accessible to all – for example, it does not accept ambulances, she said. 

El Paso County Public Health spent more than $2 million on a new building in Fountain in 2020 to expand preventive services in town based on the social determinants of health in the area.

Social factors that can influence health include economic stability, health care access and quality and education, Michelle Beyrle, a spokeswoman for public health said. 

The building houses a Women Infants and Children Office, which provides nutritional assistance. 

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“We strive to expand services to support prevention throughout El Paso County communities and have been successful in doing so in the southeastern portion of the county, where there has been tremendous population growth over the past couple of decades,” said Susan Wheelan, director of El Paso County Public Health. 

Public Health’s Fountain building is currently closed for construction. 

El Paso County Public Health’s Community Health Improvement Plan based on data from 2011 to 2015 found that some areas in Fountain have a life expectancy of between 73 and 76. In northern Colorado Springs residents have life expectancies of between 79 and 82.