uchealth
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AI in the exam room: blending technology with the human touch
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As artificial intelligence has become more ubiquitous in everyday life — from a typical smartphone’s autocorrect function to chatbots that can simulate conversations with humans, quickly analyze data sets and more — it’s also changing how medical professionals and organizations provide health care, and the patient experience along with it. Today, medical practitioners are using…
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Veteran suicide declines after years of focused prevention in El Paso County
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Editor’s note: Those who are in crisis or facing suicidal thoughts are encouraged to call the 988 crisis hotline. Former Marine Corps Sgt. Heath Miller was facing prison for theft when he decided to get clean. Like many others, his introduction to opioids started with a prescription. He received oxycodone while in the Marines to…
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Aurora police’s crisis response teams saw success in 2023
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Aurora Police Department’s co-response programs, which pair mental health clinicians with emergency responders, saw growth and success in 2023 — diverting hundreds of people from jail or emergency rooms. In a recent Aurora public safety committee meeting, staff presented the 2023 outcomes of the city’s co-responder programs, which include Aurora Mobile Response Team (AMRT) and Crisis…
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Pandemic accelerated remote health care amid crisis that triggered staffing shortages in Colorado
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When the coronavirus started sweeping through Colorado three years ago, protecting hospitals’ ability to care for the sickest patients was at the center of public life – a driving reason behind masks and limiting gatherings. Waves of the virus hammered hospital care workers for years, causing exhaustion, burnout and staffing shortages that they are still recovering from.…
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Colorado’s lost lessons from Spanish flu revisited as COVID-19 pandemic turns 3 years old
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As Colorado marks another COVID-19 anniversary, the takeaway for historians and epidemiologists is as simple as it is jarring: Americans haven’t learned the lessons from history. Three years ago Sunday, Colorado reported its first COVID-19 case – a 30-something male skier who had traveled to Italy. Eight days later, on March 13, an El Paso…
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New suicide-prevention program for military veterans, families gets underway in Colorado Springs
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At least one military veteran or active-duty service member died by suicide every week in El Paso County last year, according to the coroner’s 2021 investigative death report released Tuesday. “The number is upsetting,” said Damian McCabe, director of behavioral health-military affairs for UCHealth, which operates three hospitals and numerous clinics in Colorado Springs. Of…
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What’s next for Colorado hospitals, health care with staffing as COVID-19 pandemic ebbs?
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When the pandemic began two years ago, many policymakers and health officials worried over hospital capacity. Did hospitals – here and across the country – have enough beds to meet the expected flood of COVID-19 patients? As the pandemic wore on, the concern shifted away from beds themselves and toward the doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists and…
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Omicron cases have peaked in El Paso County, Denver
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The omicron-driven wave of coronavirus cases in El Paso County is falling, although the number of people testing positive remains higher than during any other wave. The case numbers in the community reached stratospheric levels locally earlier this month, health professionals said and case numbers likely peaked on Jan. 15 when 12,845 residents tested positive…
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10,000 deaths: Colorado’s grievous losses have devolved into an unwinnable argument
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The week after Thanksgiving, Dr. Joseph Forrester stood by the bedside of a man who’d been in the intensive care unit at the Medical Center of Aurora for two months. The patient was in his 70s, and COVID-19 had so ravaged his body that a ventilator breathed for him. Standing next to Forrester was the…
