Aurora, Colo.-based UCHealth has treated 67 patients at two Pueblo, Colo., hospitals for wildfire-related illness since the Aspen Acres fire ignited June 29, the nonprofit system said July 9.
UCHealth Parkview Medical Center saw 50 of those patients and UCHealth Parkview Pueblo West Hospital cared for 17, mostly for respiratory issues linked to smoke and poor air quality. Fifteen were hospitalized in Pueblo and one was transferred to UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central in Colorado Springs, Colo. Seven have been discharged.
The surge is straining more than bed capacity. Physicians are fielding calls from patients displaced by the fire who need to reschedule appointments or replace medications — including rescue inhalers — they left behind when they evacuated. Calls and visits to one Pueblo pulmonary clinic are up about 20% compared to a typical summer, according to Joshiah Gordon, DO, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Parkview Medical Center.
“Living in Colorado, living at altitude and living with chronic lung disease, it’s tough,” Dr. Gordon said in a statement. “With no wildfires, most of these patients would be doing great.”
The demand is not confined to southern Colorado. UCHealth urgent care clinics along the northern Front Range are also seeing more patients with reactive airway disease, shortness of breath and chest pressure as smoke pushes regional air quality to among the worst in the country.
The system is managing that demand while its own workforce experiences the disaster firsthand. Some Pueblo physicians, nurses and other staff have evacuated their homes or lost them to the fire; Parkview President Darrin Smith wrote in a note thanking teams for continuing to “provide exceptional care while also supporting one another.”
The Aspen Acres fire — one of the largest in state history, having destroyed hundreds of structures — was about 16% contained as of July 9, with crews expecting it to burn into August. Five major fires are burning statewide, pointing to a lengthening window in which health systems must run demand-surge triage alongside workforce-continuity plans.
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