In the early 1970s the Roaring Fork Valley was much more rural than it is now. El Jebel, Willets, Blue Lake, and Aspen Glen didn’t exist, and River Valley Ranch was still a ranch. The countryside between Aspen, Basalt, Carbondale, and Glenwood was ranches with a few scattered houses. There were no traffic jams, and Colorado Highway 82 and Interstate 70 through the Canyon were two-lane roads. You could buy a nice house in Glenwood for $45,000.

When I joined Glenwood Medical Associates (GMA) in 1973 after completing my family medicine residency, I became the 12th physician on the Valley View Hospital (VVH) medical staff. GMA had two older family physicians (Ed Mueller, M.D. and David Hostettler, M.D.); two younger ones (Bruce Lippman, M.D. and Orrie Clemons, M.D.); an older surgeon (Bob Viehe, M.D.); an internist (Tom Morton, M.D.); and a pediatrician (Terry Kelly, M.D.). Physicians in Glenwood outside of GMA included family doctor Mary Jo Jacobs, M.D.; her ob-gyn husband Dr. Vandevender; and an ophthalmologist, John Brooks, M.D. The only radiologist in town was Royal Smith, M.D.

Until Emergency Medicine became a specialty in 1979, it was usually family doctors who covered emergency rooms. At VVH in 1973, all the doctors on the medical staff except the radiologist took turns covering the ER. The joke when the ophthalmologist covered the ER was “I think you have a fractured femur, but before I order an x-ray let’s check your vision.”  Later the family physicians at GMA took over covering the ER, with shifts being midnight-to-midnight.

Because the ER wasn’t that busy, we scheduled patients in the office when we were on ER call. The family docs also delivered babies. Sometimes we needed to be in two or three places at the same time (the emergency room, the office, and the delivery room), which was rather stressful not only for the doctors but for the patients and nurses as well. This was long before hospitalists, and we all took care of our own patients when they were hospitalized.

VVH was a typical small, rural hospital, run by the Mennonite Board of Missions. Most of the nurses were trained to work in all the departments— ER, obstetrics, surgery, the medical ward, and the ICU/CCU. Dr. Mueller had some anesthesia training, but when he wasn’t available a nurse anesthetist in Rulison (an hour or so away) was called in to help. The doctors’ wives cooked the food for the VVH employee Christmas party. Local hunters would donate their game for the Wild Game dinner, held every fall at the Hotel Colorado or Buffalo Valley restaurant as a fundraiser for VVH.

There were no flight-for-life helicopters at VVH in 1973. If a patient had to be transferred to another facility they went by ambulance or, depending on the weather, by a small fixed-wing aircraft that took off from the Glenwood Springs Airport. 

There were just a handful of physicians in Aspen, including two orthopedists, an internist and a couple of family doctors. Aspen Valley Hospital was in a different location than the current one. One of the Aspen orthopedists held a clinic once a week at VVH. Rifle had no doctors in 1973, and two family docs from GMA would travel there a half day a week and see patients in a clinic that was set up at Clagett Memorial Hospital. Basalt had a nurse practitioner. There were no doctors in Carbondale, New Castle, or Silt.

It’s great to have the specialists and the diagnostic and treatment options now available in the Roaring Fork Valley. But there’s a certain nostalgia for the days before American medicine became big business; before the questionable practice of hospitals buying up medical practices; before electronic medical records; when office visits cost around $10; when the daily Glenwood Post Independent printed a list of locals who were hospitalized so that friends could visit them; and when VVH was smaller, with a sense of “family.” The annual VVH alumni gathering occurred a few days ago, where there was lots of talk about “the good old days.”

Dr. Greg Feinsinger is a retired family physician who started the non-profit Center For Prevention and Treatment of Disease Through Nutrition. For questions or to schedule a free consultation about nutrition or heart attack prevention contact him at gfeinsinger@comcast.net or 970-379-5718.