Pediatric Health Projects and Grants
Durango Derailers Patient Assistance Fund
The Durango Derailers are a group of road biking enthusiasts from the Durango area, led in previous years by team captain Dr. Kelly Miller, who participates yearly in Children's Hospital of Colorado's Courage Classic Bicycle Tour. The Courage Classic is a fund-raising effort for the Children's Hospital Foundation. The group's monies now directly fund the Durango Derailers Patient Assistance Fund to help defray the costs associated for families needing to travel to Children's Hospital of Colorado for specialty medical care. Families residing in La Plata, Montezuma, Dolores, San Miguel, San Juan and Archuleta counties in Colorado, and San Juan county in New Mexico, are eligible to request financial assistance for food, lodging, and transportation costs. Visit www.durangoderailers.com for more.
Durango Outreach Clinics for Pediatric Specialties
Pediatric Partners of the Southwest provides pediatric specialty care to our region by facilitating outreach clinics at our office for physicians from our two tertiary care partners, Children's Hospital Colorado and Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children. Visiting Pediatric specialists include: Cardiology, Diabetology, Gastroenterology, Orthopedics, Pulmonology, Sleep Medicine, Urology, and many others. These clinics are open to all pediatric patients in the region. In addition, PPSW was chosen as the Southwest Colorado site for Children's Hospital of Colorado's telemedicine program. Current Pediatric Specialists accessible via telemedicine clinics held at PPSW include Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Child Psychiatry.
Training Site for Pediatric Residents
PPSW is a training site for Pediatric Residents from Children's Hospital Colorado, for physicians-in-training interested in learning about the practice of primary care pediatrics in a rural setting.
Reach Out And Read
PPSW is a participating member of Reach Out And Read, a non-profit whose aim is to increase child literacy. Through this association, PPSW can purchase quality, age-appropriate books to be given out at every well child visit through the age of 5.
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment & CO Health Institiute
PPSW was a 2021 recipient of a COVID-19 Primary Care Vaccination Program Grant funded by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and administered by the Colorado Health Institute (CHI). PPSW was one of the first pediatric primary care practices to provide Covid vaccines for pediatric and adolescent patients and their families.
Adolescent Centered Environment Certification
Pediatric Partners of the Southwest completed a quality improvement project through the Adolescent Health Initiative from 2019 to 2021 with the focus of improving the quality of care we provide to our adolescent patients. This project included education for all employees regarding state laws regarding confidentiality, being youth-friendly, adolescent risk screening, LARCs (Long Acting Reversible Contraception), and cultural responsiveness among other things. We look forward to continuing this work through our School Based Health Clinics.
Colorado Health Foundation
Pediatric Partners of the Southwest (PPSW) was a 2020 recipient of a Colorado Health Foundation grant for School-Based Health Facility Expansion and Clinic Tele-Medicine System Capital Improvement. This grant is funding PPSW's Southwest Colorado rural pediatric medical home team-based care primary care services through a facility renovation at the Durango and Bayfield School-Based Health Clinics (SBHC) and clinic tele-medicine system via capital improvements. This will expand the capacity to deliver integrated behavioral health, improve community health equity and increase health access to comprehensive pediatric medical care.
State Innovation Model (SIM)
PPSW is one of twenty pediatric practices in Colorado to be awarded a Colorado State Innovation Model (SIM) grant. The goal of Colorado SIM is to improve the health of Coloradans by providing access to integrated primary care and behavioral health services in coordinated community systems, with value-based payment structures, for 80 percent of state residents by 2019. There is strong evidence that treating physical health, mental health and substance use disorders together will help us take aim at the ever-increasing burden of chronic disease. Our plan, called The Colorado Framework, creates a system of supports, both clinic-based and through expanded public health efforts, to spur integration. https://www.colorado.gov/healthinnovation
Pediatric Integrated Care Collaborative (PICC)
PPSW was awarded a PICC grant in 2017 by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. This grant was awarded to innovative Pediatric practices around the nation, and in conjunction with Johns Hopkins University, seeks to improve the delivery of behavioral health services in the Primary Care setting. The specific focus is on the role of traumatic childhood events, and their impact on overall health, and ways in which to promote childhood resiliency to such risks.
National Health Service Loan Repayment
Pediatric Partners of the Southwest was approved in 2013 by the US Department of Health and Human Services National Health Service Corps (NHSC) as an NHSC site eligible for loan repayment of its providers. This offers financial and other support to primary care providers, nurses, and behavioral health providers in underserved communities, by offering partial student loan repayments in exchange for 2 years' commitment to serving in a community-based clinic designated as a high-need area. This will allow us to continue to attract the highest-quality providers to our pediatric medical home practice.
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Grant
In 2012 PPSW was selected to serve as the only rural Colorado practice in the Children's Hospital of Colorado study on second-hand smoke. This grant will use PPSW's electronic medical record to track second-hand smoke exposure date among patients' families.
Pediatric Obesity Project, Colorado Academy of Family Physicians
PPSW was selected as a pilot site for a pediatric obesity project in 2011. As part of this project, we have implemented the Health TeamWorks clinical guidelines for Pediatric Obesity, and applied the Fit Family Challenge tool kit as an intervention model for pediatric patients and their families in a 9-month-long class, which is free for participants. Early study results have shown lasting success in helping children and families to make healthy diet and lifestyle choices.
Integrated Child Health Coordinator, San Juan Basin Public Health
PPSW partnered with SJBPH to form the Integrated Child Health Coordinator program in 2009 with a grant from The Colorado Trust. The program's focus was to expand access to care for children from birth to 5 years of age and to assist with health care coordination for young children, especially those with complex health care needs. This program evolved in 2012 to become a community-wide health care navigation system, serving community members of all ages. Pediatric Partners of the Southwest is one of the financial supporters of the current program.
Colorado Rural Health Care Grant
PPSW was a 2009 recipient of a Colorado Rural Health Care Grant, which is intended to strengthen health care in rural communities. The grant was used to help us expand services to our satellite location adjacent to the Durango Public Library, and recognized PPSW's commitment to caring for medically underserved children in our community. PPSW was selected again in 2012 to receive the grant, which is being used to create a Pediatric Asthma and Diabetes Medical Home. This is a population-based model which can provide a more structured and timely format for care, with greater coordination of support and educational resources for PPSW patients with Type I Diabetes Mellitus and asthma.
Colorado Health Foundation
PPSW received a 2009 grant from the Colorado Outreach Program through the Colorado Health Foundation for Dr. Amy Hurley. The grant is intended to help rural communities recruit and retain health care providers.
Colorado Health Foundation Grant
PPSW received the Southwestern Colorado Area Health Education Center grant from the Colorado Health Foundation to support practice transformation and clinical care coordination. This project helps support Pediatric Partners of the Southwest's development and maintenance of asthma and diabetes medical homes, including community care team partnerships with Mercy Regional Medical Center and subspecialty physicians from The Children's Hospital of Colorado. The fund assists with staff training, set-up of programs, and instituting quality of care measures.
Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, Behavioral Health Care Integration Grant
PPSW was one of 81 organizations selected by the state of Colorado to receive funding to support access to integrated behavioral healt. . These grants were made possible by the Primary Care and Behavioral Health Statewide Integration Grant Program, created by HB22-1302, which focuses on rural and frontier locations to increase the number of communities with access to behavioral health services as well as address the workforce shortage, improving primary care offices’ ability to serve people with behavioral health needs. The three-year grant will support expansion of the PPSW Integrated Behavorial Health Team services and provide additional pediatric mental health trainings for us. The grant prioritizes Health First Colorado (Colorado’s Medicaid program) and Child Health Plan Plus (CHP+) members. Click here for the press release.
Telemedicine Study (TIPP-C)
Pediatric Partners of the SW was selected to participate in the national telemedicine Integrated into primary Care & Child Outcomes (TIPP-C study) in 2023. PPSW was an early adapter of telemedicine beginning in 2014. This national study will use HIPAA limited data from EHRs i across the US to analyze the details of telemedicine visits to learn how telemedicine can be optimized and sustained to inform practice and policy guidelines beneficial to patients and pediatricians.