05-14-25 *INTERVIEW* New Veterans Affairs Health Care Facility in Castle Rock with Paul Roberts

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I saw a story the other day, and I am
aware that it was covered at least a little bit
on our morning news on Colorado's Morning News a couple
of days ago. But I just wanted to make sure
to get this information of my listeners, for listeners who
may be, you know, different from the folks listening to

(00:20):
CM and so joining me right now for a few
minutes to talk about the new facility they've opened up
is Paul Roberts. Paul is the interim director of the
Eastern Colorado Healthcare System for the VA. And if you
live here in Denver or around Denver, you might not
think of this as Eastern in Colorado, but it's definitely

(00:41):
not Western Colorado. So Paul, welcome to Kaaway. It's good
to have you here.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Hey, Ross, how you doing. It's great to be with
you today. Thanks so much for inviting me.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah, very very glad to So just tell us a
little bit about the Newcastle Rock location.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, well, you know it's right there Castle Rode, just
about a mile or so from those that nice outlet
mall setup that you guys have, and you know it's
it's it's a beautiful new facility, state of the art
which is what you're you're seeing as new facilities are
built in the VA, and it's it's nestled right there

(01:19):
in that community that's been looking for you know, on
site community support for some time. And so this new
clinic is actually designed to deliver just that. And and
you know, when you take a look at the building itself,
you know it's modeled after some clinics that we built
over the last couple of years right along the High

(01:41):
twenty five corridor. I'm I'm typically the director out in Cheyenne, Wyoming,
and we have the Northern Colorado market it falls under us.
We opened the Northern Colorado Via Clinic in twenty twenty two,
and the same builder, architect modeling was used, you know,

(02:02):
just two months ago to open up the mostly clinic
here in Aurora, and then of course this one here
in Castle Rocks. So it's this it's the same look,
it's the same design, and it's really you know, the
modern clinic fit for for veterans and for healthcare today.
It's pretty it's pretty exciting.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
I want to run a question by it. I remember,
not that long ago, I was hearing a story about
somebody complaining about the lack of services at a new
VA clinic. And the answer, and it might even have
been you giving me I don't remember who gave the answer.
The answer was that often with new VA healthcare clinics

(02:45):
that it they get opened kind of in stages. So
maybe not every department is opened the very first day,
but we've got X rays and primary care today, and
then we've got you know, orthopedics two weeks later open.
And so it is, how is the rollout for this
thing or is it just everything all at once is
good to go already.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, that's a great question. Yeah, that's what's actually proven
to work, you know pretty well. Is is kind of
what we call a soft opening. Uh we did that
in northern Colorado. Uh did it in Mosley and then
here as well. And what it does, it gives it
gives veterans and staff a chance to adapt, you know,

(03:28):
to to the UH, to the service and the operation.
You know, I'm a veteran myself, and you know, believe
it or not, in the military, sometimes we would crawl
walk run. Not everything was full throttle all the time,
and sometimes crawl walk run helps you know, assimilate the
operations and the veteran together, and so that's what we're

(03:48):
going to be doing here in Castle Rocks. So for example,
we're going to open up with one initially with one
primary care team UH, and then with the with uh
you know, the options to grow that incrementally over time
to where we get to you know, our goal is
to get to eight uh primary care teams out there
at that location. That's what it was ultimately designed for

(04:11):
for the growing population. So we'll start off with one
team and UH and of course radiology pharmacy will be
coordinated as well. UH. And then vet Express that's another
service that we got our foot in the door just
a month ago out at the Lindstrom Clinic, and that
is a a you know, walk in service where you

(04:32):
don't need an appointment, uh, you just walk in same
day and be seen.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
UH.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
And we're doing that two days a week out at
Lenstrom once again Crawl walk run. We we we know
the demand is going to increase and so as as
we can get some more assets and more more people
you know, on staff, and we can grow these services.
So vet Express back to Castle Rock. We're going to
start vet Express as well, probably a month down the

(04:58):
road uh from now. UH And and offer that same
service that express. That'll probably only be one to two
days a week until we can get our sea legs
under ourselves and uh and then we'll expand it. But
I'll tell you that express, which is for veterans out there.
You know, it's a sick call. It's when we were
on active duty. It's a it's a going a sit

(05:19):
call and being seen right away. We've been doing it
for three years in Cheyenne and then it being two
years in Northern Colorado, and I got to tell you
it is a it is a well received service and veterans, Uh,
veterans know what it is because we dealt with it
when we were on active duty and it helped us out,
helped us get back in the saddle. So uh So, anyway,

(05:39):
that's a little bit right that you can expect.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
So just give me quick quick answers on two more questions. So,
do you have enough staff already? I don't mean are
there enough people on site to do to have eight
primary cares? You explained that within the system. Do you
have enough people to staff that up to eight or

(06:02):
do you need to hire people to staff that up?

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, we we have enough staff. Probably the seventy five
percent solution right now. We we do need to add
some more staff in primary care and and some medical
support assistants to really round out uh, not not just
Castle Rock, but also all of our you know, uh
sites outside of the Denver metro area. And and that

(06:29):
doesn't have anything to do really with the current climate
or environment. It's it's uh, we've been working you know,
uh to get these uh, these staff positions, you know,
over the course of years. Yeah, you know, so right, No,
we have what we need.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Last good question for you, So for folks who live
in or near Douglas County who are veterans and might
like to make this their their at sort of home clinic,
how do people get about go about getting connected with
the Newcastle Rock location?

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, well, a couple of methods. One, we'll we'll have
stuff posted on our on our media sites that that
can can you know, point people in the right direction.
The other recommendation I have if you happen to be
you know, seeing your primary care providers and teams now
and you want to transition, they are probably the great
great source right there human connection to ask them how

(07:26):
how they get transferred over? We can make those connections
for them, uh, you know, to ease that transition so
we can do it from the current primary care setting.
And then probably lastly is uh you know, we have
a pretty strong patient advocate team here at Denver you know,
regional right here in Denver Metro and uh, give us

(07:47):
a call and we can source you through and do
those transfers for you over the phone and get the
paperwork square it away.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Paul Roberts, the interim director of the Eastern Colorado Healthcare
System for the Veterans Administration. Thanks for being here, Paul,
and thanks for your service.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Hey, thanks so much. Ross. You all have a great
day and I'll see you on the high ground.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
You got it. Thank you.