Vail Health asks an important question at annual community meeting and gets some ‘phenomenal feedback’
The health care system’s annual community meeting offers an opportunity to ensure Vail Health is and stays on the right track
Ali Longwell/Vail Daily
Various community stakeholders, elected officials, leaders and residents joined Vail Health at Hovey & Harrison in Edwards on Monday for the health care organization’s annual community feedback meeting.
The meeting provided Vail Health patients and partners — including those from nonprofit, for-profit and governmental sectors — an opportunity to tell the organization what it’s doing well and what it could improve upon.
“As your community hospital and health system, we have a strong desire to hear if we’re meeting the needs of the community. Not only do we have a strong desire, it’s actually an obligation of ours,” said Amy Lavigne, senior director of quality and patient experience at Vail Health. “We do this in many ways … and that’s what today is all about, for us to sit back and really listen.”
In addition to being required by The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, the annual meeting is hosted to include the community in discussions for various Vail Health initiatives and regulatory requirements. This includes Vail Health’s Community Health Needs Assessment, progress within Colorado’s Hospital Transformation Program, community benefit activities and health equity efforts.
In addition to Monday’s morning session, Vail Health hosted a similar event in the evening for Spanish-speaking members of the community. It will collect feedback from these focus group sessions as well as accept online feedback via email during a 30-day comment period ending on Sept. 5. All feedback is submitted anonymously.
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Meeting community needs
Monday’s discussion primarily centered around the priorities identified in Vail Health’s Community Health Needs Assessment.
The assessment is part of Vail Health’s regulatory requirements with the IRS as a nonprofit hospital and its community benefit accountability with the state. It must be conducted every three years. The last assessment was released in October 2022, so the organization will begin the process of creating the 2025 report early next year.
Vail Health’s assessment not only looks at population health-related data — including demographic, economic and social indicators of health — but also facilitates with community partners and focus groups to solicit feedback and identify these needs.
Collecting feedback is not only required in the assessment process but allows Vail Health to ensure it is on track with the assessment’s implementation plan, identify any community gaps “before it’s too late” and identify what is missing before it starts creating the next assessment, according to Sally Welsh, Vail Health’s public relations director.
Lavigne said questions for Monday’s focus groups were centered on understanding: “Are we meeting the community’s needs from a health care perspective?”
The 2022 Community Health Care Needs Assessment identifies eight priority areas for Vail Health:
- Engage, enroll and connect people to improve whole-person health.
- Bring care to the people.
- Focus prevention and early intervention on our greatest health opportunities.
- Increase utilization of healthy foods.
- Address health care staffing shortages with a focus on increased diversity.
- Increase early childhood and family supports.
- Improve system interoperability and integration.
- Advance internal and external policy and incentives to improve population health.
Between 2022 and 2024, Vail Health reportedly spent around $20.1 million across these eight focus areas, many of which include providing funding to and collaborating with community partners.
According to its Aug. 5 report, its largest area of spending was in “bringing care to people,” with $9.7 million spent on this priority since 2022. This spending has included expanding care with the Wiegers Mental Health Clinic, starting construction on the Precourt Healing Center, expanding the community health program on the MIRA Bus, service through Olivia’s Fund, supporting Eagle County Paramedics’ community paramedic program and more.
The assessment names 42 community partners, many of which were at Monday’s session. Representatives attended from Eagle County Public Health, Avon Police, SpeakUp ReachOut, Eagle County Paramedic Services, Your Hope Center, Mountain Family Health Centers, Colorado Mountain College, Habitat for Humanity Vail Valley, Vail Resorts and more.
“This isn’t just about Vail Health, this isn’t what Vail Health can do, this is about what we as a community can do together,” Lavigne said.
During the focus groups on Monday, representatives from some of Vail Health’s partners spoke about the value of partnership and collaboration, encouraging the organization to lean into this as it looks ahead.
In one focus group, County Commissioner Matt Scherr said that the “greatest change” he’s witnessed with Vail Health over the years is its increased focus on community. This has occurred as Vail Health has taken on a leadership role and focused on partnerships, Scherr added.
Looking ahead, Scherr suggested that Vail Health needs to continue to assume a leadership role and tackle some of the systemic issues in health care in addition to some of the day-to-day challenges.
On Monday, splitting into focus groups, individuals primarily shared their experiences with providers and the health care system as well as ideas for the future. Conversations centered on what Vail Health has done successfully, what gaps it has concerning community needs as well as how the organization can improve its services and make care more equitable.
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Discussions touched on the increased quality and quantity of care offered, the need for “culturally-sensitive care” in addition to translation services, what specialties community members wish were offered locally, what will happen when providers retire (and what Vail Health is doing to build and support career pipelines), a need for more integrated services and medical records between Vail Health and Colorado Mountain Medical and more.
“We got some phenomenal feedback,” Lavigne shared as she closed Monday’s event.
To provide feedback, comments can be submitted to VHEvents@VailHealth.org until Sept. 5. To learn more about the process or view the report from Aug. 5, visit VailHealth.org/Community.
