As of this morning, there are no outpatient medical care facilities in the Mancos Valley. The Mancos Valley Medical Center, run by Dr. Allan Burnside and Linda Burnside, closed Friday evening for economic reasons. Patient records from the Mancos clinic will be at the Burnsides’ Dolores Medical Center, and most of their Mancos patients will be treated there.

Faced with the loss of professional medical care in Mancos and the possible sale of the clinic building for non-medical uses, about 25 concerned citizens in the Mancos Valley met Monday evening with Michael Guillette, P. A., to explain alternatives. Guillette and his wife, Amanda, were among the staff of the Mancos Family Clinic before the clinic was bought by a group of local investors and reopened last July with the Burnsides in charge. Before that sale, when it was clear that Mercy Medical Center, the previous owner, was going to cut back the health services it would provide in Mancos, Guillette had been exploring the possibility of converting the clinic to a community health clinic.

Richard Loucks, the CEO of C&G Health Care Administrators, Inc., said that the former clinic building is now under contract, but "no real decision has been made" about what to do with the medical equipment from the clinic.

Louks said Burnside has agreed to see those elderly Mancos residents who have difficulty traveling at the Valley Inn, and those residents have been notified in writing of Burnside’s offer.

At the Monday gathering, Guillette described the possibility of developing a local clinic in cooperation with Valley-Wide Health Services of Alamosa. He emphasized that such a clinic would have a strong focus on prevention, providing screenings and health care advice.

A second meeting was held Thursday evening at the new fire station. The 15 participants consisted mostly of long-time Mancos Valley residents, most of whom could remember when a community fund-raising drive brought the Mancos clinic into being. County Administrator Tom Weaver, a Mancos Valley resident, recommended that to get anywhere, the group would need to prepare a business plan and would need to start out on a scale that was supportable by the potential income.

Bob Peterson, CEO of Southwest Memorial Hospital, was present at the meeting and he offered the assistance of SWMH staff member Dennis Lucero in writing a business plan. He was also optimistic about the Mancos Valley qualifying as a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) — a federal classification given to rural areas underserved by health care services. His advice was to "hone in on a [medical] resident," because they often have huge educational debts and practicing in an HPSA knocks $35,000 off the top of any federal loans they owe.

The group agreed to fan out and look at potential sites for a small community health clinic. Such a clinic would require a building with between 800 and 1,200 square feet that could be dedicated to a clinic, as well as adequate parking and accessibility. In the meantime, Guillette, Lucero and Weaver will work on the business plan, which Guillette thought could be in draft form in two to three weeks. At some point after that, Marguerite Salazar, from Valley-Wide Health Services would be invited to meet with people in Mancos to explore the possibilities.