Prowers Medical Center’s new location in Las Animas, The Las Animas Family Practice, will be offering family health care services in Las Animas.
The family practice is located at 304 Carson Avenue.
Dr. Michelle Misch, a family practice physician who also offers obstetric care, Gary Peterson, family nurse practitioner and Barry Portner, MD, OB/GYN, will staff the clinic.
Portner will be providing a gynecology specialty clinic in Las Animas.
The Prowers Medical Center Laboratory will also be providing services at the clinic one day a week, Prowers Medical Center CEO James Fairchild said.
Because of the closure of Bent County’s clinic, the center, which has a contract with the Bent County Health Department and Bent County HealthCare Center for rehabilitation services and other services, decided to make a clinic open in Las Animas.
The lack of an OB/GYN in La Junta, causing people from Las Animas to go to Pueblo, aided in the decision to bring an OB/GYN to Las Animas, he said.
The clinic will be able to offer prenatal care in Las Animas, then provide birthing services at Prowers County Medical Center.
The addition of the clinic in Las Animas, which is similar to the one in Holly, will lower the cost of health care throughout the region, Fairchild said.
“It’s a win-win situation,” he said.
A partnership already exists between Bent County and Valley Wide Health Systems, the Bent County Commissioners said.
Commissioners were unaware that Prowers Medical Center was opening a clinic in Las Animas, Commissioner Tom Wallace said.
Representatives from Prowers Medical Center were encouraged to come talk to the Bent County Commission, something they never did, Commissioner Bill Long said.
The losses in revenue from two other local providers over a two-year period concern the commissioners.
Bent County HealthCare Center lost approximately $200,000 and Bent County Nursing Services lost nearly $150,000 in a two to three-year period, Long said.
Commissioners are 100 percent behind anyone who wants to better Bent County and Las Animas, he said.
“We think making sure the community’s medical needs are served is important,” Long said. “What we’re concerned with is that no one had a conversation with the commissioners.”
Las Animas Family Practice is open Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
