Cortez and Montezuma County are growing – not just getting bigger, but better as well. We have a terrific new high school and the city and county have done a pretty good job keeping up with our infrastructure needs – always a challenge. Another, perhaps less visible part of our infrastructure is our health care infrastructure. It is no longer true that if you move here and are on Medicare, you cannot find a primary care provider. Cortez Integrated Healthcare and Southwest Memorial Primary Care have filled that gap. Yet primary care and specialty care depend on and work closely with hospitals for labs, inpatient needs, emergency services and specialty clinics. Southwest Memorial Hospital is our hospital. It, too, needs to keep up with the times and changing needs of Cortez and the surrounding communities. That is why the board of directors of Axis Health System, which operates Cortez Integrated Healthcare, voted unanimously to express our support for the hospital’s plans for capital improvement. We believe the proposed changes will help the hospital stay current with technological advances, provide better patient flow and better overall care for our residents, including the 27 Montezuma County residents who work at our clinic.

Bern Heath

Durango