Health Care

Lawmakers and activists rallied this week at the state Capitol, demanding the legislature address low pay and unsafe working conditions for home-care workers.

As the battle for reproductive rights deepens in post-Roe America, a law professor points out, “Colorado is going to be so important in the near future, immediate future, right now."

The pandemic forced Colorado industries to shut down storefronts and put up with supply chain issues and inflation. Despite the financial squeeze, the state’s new business filings have skyrocketed during the last three years, nearing a 10-year peak last quarter. And the economic development is happening in urban and rural communities alike.

During an ongoing mental health crisis, without easily accessible long-term care, many Coloradans with serious mental illness (SMI) end up cycling in and out of emergency departments and jails. A new bill aims to create more options by adding treatment beds at a state hospital as well as in smaller community facilities.

About 96% of people now live within an hour of life-saving stroke care, but the Mountain West has the worst access in the country. That’s according to new research from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Data from the University of Iowa show that rural death rates across the region rose sharply from mid-October through November. Residents in non-metro areas were dying at twice the rate of those in cities.

Latinos face high rates of COVID-19 and diabetes. But one community clinic in Reno is seeing sharp decreases in patient numbers, deepening the risk for people with chronic illnesses.

With hospitals in the Mountain West overrun with COVID-19 patients, states are increasingly utilizing monoclonal antibody treatment to ease a seemingly endless public health crisis — one that could worsen with the emergence of the highly contagious omicron variant.

The West is facing a growing shortage of home care workers as the senior population booms and more people stay away from nursing homes as the pandemic drags on.

With no local access to prescription drugs, the town of Walden, Colorado has crowdsourced a delivery system, taking advantage of anyone’s trip to those bigger cities to pick up medications for the rest of the town.