Officials with the Colorado Rural Health Center visited Cortez on Thursday for National Rural Health Day at Southwest Memorial Hospital.
“Each year on National Rural Health Day, we take some time to pause and acknowledge how important rural health care facilities are to communities across rural and frontier Colorado,” CRHC CEO Michelle Mills said in a news release after the luncheon.
The National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health has observed the day on the third Thursday of November since 2011. Colorado’s State Office of Rural Health since 1991, the Rural Health Center expressed appreciation for Southwest Health System.
“We’re honored today to have CRHC recognizing the good work at Southwest Health System and the work we do every day to care for people,” said Southwest Health System CEO Joe Theine.
Mills also read a proclamation signed by Gov. Jared Polis in 2024, recognizing the day. As the proclamation says, 97% of U.S. land is rural, occupied by 66 million people, or 20% of the nation’s population.
“As stated in the governor’s proclamation, rural health care providers and staff are the backbone of medical care in our community,” said Lisa Gates, Southwest Health System chief nursing officer.
In October, Southwest Memorial Hospital received 5-star ratings in nurse communication and cleanliness from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, according to Becker’s Hospital Review.
The hospital and its affiliated medical sites provide a resource for Montezuma County’s rural residents.
Southwest Health System – which includes the hospital on North Mildred Road, a clinic in Mancos and one at Montezuma-Cortez High School – recorded tens of thousands of patient visits last year, according to its latest annual report.
