Boulder – It started out as a medical clinic for “transient hippies” 36 years ago in a cramped basement.
Now, the People’s Clinic serves a large swath of people: senior citizens who can’t afford Medicare co- payments, homeless people, a few students, and a growing population of “working poor” – people who have jobs but no health insurance.
Last year 9,000 people came to the primary care clinic, housed in two aging buildings north of the University of Colorado campus. Roughly 62 percent of those patients didn’t have insurance; the rest had Medicaid or Medicare or some kind of “emergency” insurance that didn’t help with routine checkups.
One in 12 Boulder residents come to the clinic.
“People don’t think that this kind of poverty exists in Boulder,” said interim chief executive Connie Holden. “It’s well-hidden.”
But the clinic, with its 27 bilingual doctors and nurses, weekenders- on-call and support staff, is not.
The clinic sets flat fees for pregnant women, to get them to come for all their prenatal visits. Patients tell stories about clinic workers slipping them bus tokens so they can get to follow-up appointments or to the pharmacy, and finding them a hotel room to recover in when they’re homeless.
The agency is seeking funding from this year’s Post/News Season to Share campaign.
“I had insurance for 20 years and my medical care wasn’t that different,” said Glenn Ford, a 52-year-old Boulder resident who suffers from several chronic illnesses including hepatitis C. “They’ve always treated me really well.”
Recently, clinic managers asked all the doctors and nurses to endure a “hell week” of care to ease their backlog of patients. Doctors and nurses worked 12-hour days and weekends to “catch up.”
The average wait time for an appointment went from 20 to 30 days to two to three days after the long week.
This has made loyal patients out of the Flamenco family, who live in Denver where they have to wait weeks for an appointment, said Marta Flamenco.
“They’re very nice,” she said in Spanish. “And I don’t have to wait here.”
Flamenco was at the People’s Clinic for vaccinations for her 5-month- old, Michelle. Her daughter is named after a People’s Clinic doctor.
“It’s better than in Denver,” said Michelle’s father, Jose. “Es como familia” – it’s like family, he said.
Grant writer Leah Spielberg said the clinic has come a long way since it started in a Boulder house, its first infusion of money from a rock concert.
“Now it’s not just transient hippies,” she said. “We still treat them, too. It’s open for everyone.”
Staff writer Allison Sherry can be reached at 303-954-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com.
To donate
Post-News Season to Share, a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, gave more than $1.73 million to 56 agencies last year serving children, and people who are hungry, homeless or in need of medical care. Donations are matched 50 cents to the dollar, and 100 percent of the donations go to the charitable agencies. To contribute, please see the coupon on Page 3B, call 888-683- 4483 or visit seasontoshare.com.
