Ensuring access to health care

Grand Junction’s newest psychiatric hospital found itself deep in debt after issuing bonds to pay for the entire cost of the building in 2005.

So the new CEO of Colorado West Regional Mental Health had few options for dealing with what turned out to be a mistake in the hospital’s financial forecasting. One way to deal with the situation was to go bankrupt. Another was to turn to The Colorado Health Foundation, one of the state’s largest foundations. While The Colorado Health Foundation is one of the few focused exclusively on health care issues, almost half of all the money the state’s foundations contribute each year supports health and human services nonprofits in every corner of the state.

After making a few interim emergency grants to Colorado West, the Denver-based health foundation made an unusual decision. Because of the potential consequences for the area if the hospital was forced to close its doors, the foundation ultimately contributed more than $8 million toward debt relief, capital funding and operations. By doing so, the Western Slope area avoided a potential spike in the costs of emergency health and public safety services that likely would have followed the loss of mental health care for 13,000 patients in 10 counties. Keeping Colorado West’s doors open also saved 400 jobs. “This is a significant investment for the Foundation and one that is not without risk,” says Anne Warhover, president and CEO of The Colorado Health Foundation. “But the greater risk is to the 300,000 residents living on the western slope whose future mental health needs rely on Colorado West.”

It took more than a year of complex negotiations with the mental health facility, the community, the county and the Colorado Department of Local Affairs. The Boettcher and El Pomar foundations stepped in to help, too, so that The Colorado Health Foundation would not be shouldering all the risk on its own.