The Jan. 23 Cottonwood Community Awareness Group meeting focused on health care, featuring presentations from Northern Arizona Healthcare, Spectrum Healthcare and Yavapai County Community Health Services.
Northern Arizona Healthcare includes two hospitals, Verde Valley Medical Center and Flagstaff Medical Center, as well an emergency department in Sedona and a primary care facility in Camp Verde. NAH staff discussed the services they offer in the Verde Valley.
NAH staff repeated that they are not closing VVMC, that it will remain an anchor hospital for their health care services in the Verde Valley and that they will be investing more in the facility.
NAH has also been working on a master plan for the Verde Valley to identify what services are needed, spaces where those services can be provided and what people are needed to provide those services. A draft of the master plan was presented to the public in the fall of 2023 and NAH continues to modify it based on community input.
Improvements planned for the Verde Valley include creating a comprehensive oncology program, improving flow in the emergency department for shorter wait times and improving campus wayfinding with better signage.
NAH representatives said that recruitment continues to be their top priority, and added that they have been seeing success in hiring providers to work at the Verde Valley locations, including former providers who have left the area coming back to work in the valley within recent months. They currently have 16 primary care providers serving the valley, which is a net gain of six positions since 2022.
Spectrum Healthcare’s chief business development officer Sunshine Dean discussed its Verde Valley services. Spectrum offers “anywhere care,” including in-home visits, curbside visits and telehealth. They have a mobile medical unit that offers psychiatry, therapy, primary care, pain management and medication-assisted treatment on the go, as well as a mental health crisis team. Medication-assisted treatment is used to provide relief from withdrawal symptoms for those quitting opioid use. Spectrum also offers primary care services at their office on Mingus Avenue.
Yavapai County Community Health Services includes three departments, Community Health Services, the Community Health Center and a medical examination office. The services that YCCHS offers in Cottonwood include primary care, dentistry, psychiatry and pediatrics. They have a sliding fee scale for those who qualify. In addition, they host community health programs such as tai chi and diabetes prevention.
County staff also touched on their future plans, such as creating a mobile healthcare unit using grant funding, expanding telehealth for the benefit of rural communities, hosting school-based clinics and instituting a courier delivery service for pharmacy prescriptions.
One resident asked why the region is losing so many primary care providers. NAH representatives said that it is a national trend, but added that they are gaining providers at the moment. YCCHS representatives said that many providers are aging out of the system and retiring and that it is difficult to recruit providers in rural areas.
