Colo. Fire Chief Plans to Turn Firehouses Into Clinics

Colorado Springs Fire Chief Rich Brown plans to turn several southeast fire stations into basic preventive-care clinics where residents can stop by for such things as blood pressure and blood sugar checks.

A two-hour blood pressure check clinic at three fire stations on Tuesday was just the beginning of Brown's vision, he said. In the coming weeks, he hopes that people can go to fire stations for non-emergency check ups, such as getting an EKG done, instead of calling 911 for basic problems.

"We are going 100 miles an hour towards that end," Brown said.

Brown briefly discussed the clinic intiative at Mayor Steve Bach's second Town Hall meeting Wednesday night at the Southeast YMCA off Jet Wing Drive. About 100 residents listened while Bach discussed his plans for improving housing quality, parks, and job opportunities in that part of town.

Deputy Fire Chief Tommy Smith, who also attended the meeting, described the clinic program as a way for people to have access to basic health care, a step to take before visiting the doctor or emergency room. Nearly 70 percent of the 56,000 calls the department handles every year are medical calls, Smith explained.

"You hear a lot of talk in the news about health care," he said. "The fire department is a huge part of health care. We're the only ones that still make house calls."

Details of the station clinic program are being ironed out, Smith said. Although firefighters are always available for blood pressure checks at a station, the clinics will bring in health-care volunteers to perform basic procedures and discuss general health with walk-ins. Community Health Partners will help staff the clinics, Smith said, and firefigthers will help out when not responding to 911 calls.

"This won't detract from our response time or 911 calls," he said.

Fire Station 11, 3810 Jet Wing Drive, will house the first clinic, Smith said. In the meantime, residents can stop by Station 8, 3737 Airport Road, from 10 a.m. to noon every Tuesday for blood pressure checks.

Most of those at Wednesday's Town Hall, however, seemed more concerned about the city's cuts to bus routes in the area. With a tight budget, Bach suggested that extra buses could be provided by local non-profits, but he had little hope that the situation would be resolved soon.

"We're not going to be able to have a robust transit system in 200 square miles," he said.

The big issue facing the southeast side, which is rife with empty strip malls and vacant land, is one of economic woe, Bach said. It's not a problem unique to one particular part of town--the entire city is having to conserve and cut a few corners.

Copyright 2012 - The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service