Mountaintop Medicine

A foot injury she sustained while training for the Boston Marathon changed the trajectory of Dr. Jamie Mieras’ career. She did not start out to become a healer.

The Boulder native went to school at The University of Colorado for a degree in Biology with an emphasis on plant studies. She moved to Seattle and worked as an IT administrator for a time. That’s when she got into running, one of her big passions.

“When I found a podiatrist to help me, I was just in awe of what he could do,” Dr. Mieras remembered. “I was so impressed. I said, ‘Is this what you do all day?’ I decided right then and there that this was a good career path for me.”

Dr. Mieras went to DO school at Midwestern University in Arizona. She did clinical internship in Phoenix and San Francisco before heading to San Diego for residency. She worked in Sacramento where she treated a lot of foot and ankle trauma. Then she came back to Colorado and practiced for a year in Boulder before practicing rural health medicine in California. She has the only podiatrist in a 200-mile radius.

“Accessibility to this specialty is important,” Dr. Mieras emphasized. “Foot and ankle problems make it hard to drive and difficult to walk around and get to places.”

Following that experience, Dr. Mieras worked in Portland at one of the busiest hospital systems in the city. She saw a lot of different pathologies and took part in many surgeries.

Why Estes Park Health

After growing up in Boulder and being in Colorado for a good portion of her life, Dr. Mieras says Estes Park feels like her second home.

“My grandparents moved to Boulder because they loved Estes, but it was just a little bit too high for them,” she noted. “As a young child, I was brought to Estes quite a bit to explore the trails and enjoy the town. It just feels like home. For me to be able to bring more than a decade of experience to home is nice and important to me.”

When asked what she thinks she will like best about working at Estes Park Health, Dr. Mieras answered, “the people.”

“The people I interact with here are very genuine and authentic,” she said. “Everyone seems so nice and involved. We’re all a part of each other’s lives. I’m very happy to become a piece of that and give back in terms of being able to help people heal. This is extremely rewarding in a small community where we all know each other, and we are integrated. I am so excited to be here. It’s a wonderful place. I started seeing patients in early February.”

Kinds of podiatric cases and surgical options

Dr. Mieras believes that a big part of being a doctor is getting patients to understand what is going on. If you understand as a patient, she said, you are most likely to do the right things for it or to understand the healing process.

The most common complaints she will be seeing as a podiatrist at EPH include plantar fasciitis, pain around the toes and in the ankle, sprains, fractures, ligament repairs, reconstructions, bunions, hammer toe issues, corns, and callouses.

“We see people with diabetes who need a little bit of extra care for their feet and extra monitoring,” Dr. Mieras pointed out. “The high blood sugars can make their immune system less able to respond to problems to being with. We see a decrease in nerve sensation. The ends of the small nerves at the ends of the toes up to the bottom of the foot start to go numb. Then the body is not alerted when something is happening in that area. Things can become worse quickly. It’s very important that we monitor diabetic feet so that the patient is on the path to health. It’s one of the most rewarding things to see a diabetic foot wound heal and for that person to become more mobile.”

Dr. Mieras will also be performing surgeries at EPH. She is board certified in both foot and rear foot reconstruction and ankle surgery and can take care of everything from bunions to ligaments.

Dr. Mieras on her off time

Dr. Mieras has some interesting hobbies, from running long distances to flying airplanes.

“I do like adventure,” she commented. “I run ultramarathons, usually on the trail. I’ve run one 100-miler and several 50-milers. I am a pilot of small planes. It’s very fun. I serve as a flight instructor on the weekends. I’ll go down to an airport in Broomfield and help my students learn how to fly.”

Estes Park Health has two new faces in the emergency department – Dr. Paige Machado and Dr. Zachary Blea. They work for Estes Park Emergency Associates, a small company started about 30 years ago by Dr. Christoper Daley. They contract to staff the emergency room at EPH.

Dr. Paige Machado

When Paige Machado was a little girl, her family could see her future.

“My parents like to joke that I wanted to be a doctor since I was five years old,” Dr. Machado recalled. “I used to watch ‘Rescue 9-1-1’ on the TV and make them record it. I’ve always been interested in medicine. I wanted to do something to help people in a concrete way. I also really enjoy science and biology so that was a natural avenue for me.”

Dr. Machado ended up picking emergency medicine because of the fast pace, because every shift is different. She was born in Colorado Springs but completed her schooling and medical education in Boston. It was a total of 13 years including an undergraduate degree, medical school, and residency which was training specifically in emergency medicine.

“I like the idea of being a generalist, being a jack of all trades and knowing a little bit about how to handle just about anything that walks through the door,” she noted.

Starting her job at EPH in July 2024, Dr. Machado got a taste of the tourist season.

“There is no typical week which is part of what I like about emergency medicine,” she explained. “Every week and every shift are completely different. Sometimes it’s super busy. Sometimes it’s a little slower. The patients you see are the full spectrum, from babies to the elderly. We see a lot of physical injuries from car accidents, hiking accidents, people falling, broken bones. We also see medical emergencies like heart attacks, strokes, appendicitis, and gall bladder infections. We see a lot of colds and flu in the winter months, as well as people with asthma exacerbations or pneumonia.”

Time is critical when you are experiencing an emergency. EPH stresses if you are having what you feel like is an acute emergency, do not try to drive to a bigger hospital. Even if you think you are having a stroke or a heart attack, call an ambulance, get to Estes Park Health first, and then the emergency physicians can stabilize you, start treatment, and get you to the level of care you need.

“We are designated as a Critical Access Hospital,” Dr. Machado explained. “My training has prepared me to handle any emergency. A big part of what we do is triage patients. If a patient comes in and they are having a medical emergency, we do have the resources and the ability to transfer them to where they need to be. My job is to stabilize them and make sure we do that in the safest way possible.”

Dr. Machado has enjoyed her first six months living in Estes Park.

“I’ve never lived in a super small town,” she said. “Coming from the big city to a rural town, I had some reservations. But I really enjoy the sense of community here. I see patients in the grocery store sometimes. Everyone has been welcoming and very friendly which I appreciate. I grew up in Colorado, so I’m a big fan of hiking. Exploring Rocky Mountain National Park is fun. I didn’t get to do too much of that before. I also like to camp, and I like to go fishing.”

Dr. Zachary Blea

When he was in high school, Dr. Zachary Blea dreamed of becoming a firefighter.

“I took an EMT course,” he said. “I got a job on an ambulance. I really fell in love with medicine. I realized I wanted to do more medicine, less firefighting. I got a job in the emergency room working as an ER tech to explore more opportunities in the healthcare field. I worked alongside an ER doc who was a great mentor, someone I really looked up to. And I thought, ‘This is exactly what I want to do.’”

Dr. Blea was 22 at the time. He enrolled in college and started working toward becoming a doctor.

“Emergency medicine kept all me,” he remembered. “I love the fast-paced environment of the emergency department. You never know what is coming in through the door. You see anything and everything. There is a little bit of excitement, a little bit of spontaneity.”

Dr. Blea has worked in the EPH emergency department since July 2024. He has a wife and three children. He completed his emergency medicine residency at a large hospital in Detroit. He said he did not know many of his co-workers or patients. He appreciates the more intimate feel of a smaller hospital.

“It has been great,” he emphasized. “I love the small community feel. I love the hospital. I love working with people I know. I like taking care of the community I’m living in. I love that tight-knit feel that you don’t get at a big hospital.”

Dr. Blea said the current team of emergency physicians at EPH are topnotch.

“The other ER physicians have been here a long time,” he noted. “They know the hospital and the community. I felt at home immediately.”

Michael Morton recently underwent a pulmonary function test at Estes Park Health. The 75-year-old Estes Park retiree was hospitalized in 2023 when one of his lungs filled with fluid. He’s recovered now, but his doctor wants to check his lung function.

“My pulmonary physician decided he wanted to see how my breathing was doing,” Morton said. “It’s just a test to follow up and make sure I’m still doing well.”

Respiratory therapist Bill Christen guided him through the process. The sensitive machine analyzes and test lung volumes, lung capacity, rates of flow, and how gas exchange takes place in the lungs.

“It’s a noninvasive diagnostic test to let you know how well your lungs are working,” Christen explained. “All that data, once it’s collected, is then transferred via our electronic health records to a pulmonary physician.”

The pulmonary function test can help with a diagnosis of asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, known as COPD. The test can also let physicians know how well pharmacological treatments are working.

Christen has been working as a respiratory therapist for more than 35 years. He has spent the last three years working with patients at Estes Park Health. He enjoys the hands-on nature of his job and helping people.

“There’s a community up here that needs to be served and I’m glad that we’re able to do that,” Christen remarked. “I think it makes it so much simpler for that patient, so they don’t have to leave town.”

The respiratory therapists at Estes Park Health perform 25 or 30 pulmonary function tests each month. They also perform what’s called a six-minute walking test to see if patients need to be on supplemental oxygen or if they need their oxygen adjusted.

Sam Schwab lives in Big Elk Meadows near Estes Park. His primary care doctor suggested he take the walking test since he has been having some symptoms.

“I told him I’ve had shortness of breath,” Schwab commented. “And so, he’s trying to follow up to see exactly why. We walk a loop in our neighborhood. It’s a little over a mile, mile-and-a-quarter. It was getting to where I’d have to stop every two or three minutes to catch my breath. When I start to do physical things, I’m short of breath and my muscles feel fatigued until I warm up and then I can go, go, go. He said you’ve probably got maybe the start of emphysema or COPD. So, we’re just going through the motions to see what we need to do to make my life easier.”

Respiratory therapist Michelle Heydenreich is the professional who conducted Schwab’s test. She has been an RT for more than 30 years. She likes her job and says it’s different every day.

“Every patient is different,” Heydenreich stressed. “Everyone reacts to everything differently. Something is always changing it seems. And it feels good to make people feel better. Like if they can’t breathe, we’re their best friend because we have the tools to help them breathe.”

Along with outpatient lung testing like sleep studies, RTs also help patients in the hospital with breathing treatments, ventilators and emergency care. Having respiratory therapy locally is extremely important.

“We’re at 7500 feet,” Heydenreich added. “People might have problems breathing here. But they go down to Loveland, which is 5000 feet, they’re fine. It’s extremely important that you do it where you live because this is where you’re breathing every day.”

For Schwab, being able to undergo this simple test where he lives makes a lot of sense.

“Estes is much more convenient,” he noted. “We’ve been coming to this facility for 40 years, at least. The personnel are great. And they seem to care.”

For sophisticated respiratory therapy to help you breathe easier and get back to your life, think Estes Park Health. Mountaintop Medicine, Quality Care.

To watch a video about Respiratory Therapy at Estes Park Health, go to https://youtu.be/V91ncUJDZPI.

Dr. Jennifer McLellan took on the job of medical Chief of Staff at Estes Park Health on January 1st. She is the third woman in a row and the third woman ever to hold this leadership position. She takes over from Dr. Bridget Dunn who served in the role in 2023 and 2024. Before Dr. Dunn, Dr. Robyn Zehr served in the role.

“I am essentially the lead physician for all the physicians who are medical staff members of Estes Park Health.” Dr. McLellan explained. “I will be a liaison between the medical staff members and the administration as well as the Park Hospital District Board. We do have a lot of women on our medical staff at Estes Park Health. I am excited to have more representation of women at all levels of leadership at our hospital. I think it’s important. Of course, all the men who have served as medical Chief of Staff before us have done a fantastic job, but I think it’s great to have more representation by some women as well.”

Dr. McLellan has worked at Estes Park Health since 2019, first working through a rural physicians’ group, now as a general surgeon at EPH since October of 2020.

She will continue doing her regular job performing surgeries and seeing patients in the clinic. In addition, as the medical Chief of Staff, she will be running medical staff meetings and medical executive meetings. She will also meet regularly with the EPH CEO and will present quarterly to the Park Hospital District Board.

Dr. McLellan said she is excited to take on this position because she has always been interested in leadership and administration.

“I’m excited for the challenge,” she noted. “I feel like I’m in a good position to be able to work with the medical staff and the administration. I try to get along with people and I feel like I’m approachable. People can come to me when they have issues. I can help bring issues from the medical staff to the administration as well as to the Board. And vice versa.”

McLellan aspires to be a leader in hospitals for the rest of her career. She is looking toward obtaining an MBA.

“But I also love being a general surgeon,” she stressed. “I love taking care of patients. I don’t really want to give that up right now.”

Dr. McLellan and her partner, Dr. Christine Bogardus, perform the “bread and butter” of general surgery. They offer the full spectrum of general surgeries which includes hernia repairs, gall bladder procedures, appendectomies, surgery on the small and large intestine. They also perform colonoscopies and upper endoscopies. They also provide multiple procedures in the clinic for conditions like lumps, bumps, abscesses, and hemorrhoid issues.

She is also a member of the CU Medical Alumni Association and a member of the Estes Park High School Health Science Advisory Committee.

Transition to UCHealth

Dr. McLellan said she is excited that EPH has a pending partnership with UCHealth later this year.

“The transition to becoming part of UCHealth is exciting and it’s a little bit daunting.” She commented. “There are a lot of unknowns right now. My tenure as Chief of Staff is going to be unique in that way. I will be part of the leadership dealing with UCHealth and helping them understand the issues and concerns our medical staff have.”

She added that UCHealth will be investing in the physical plant and equipment, but UCHealth will also be encouraging and helping staff with education and advancing what types of patients we can take care of at our hospital.

“We’ll be able to tap into their intellectual capital,” Dr. McLellan emphasized. “It will be wonderful to be able to utilize all their expertise. I think it is going to be beneficial for our hospital and our community.”

The road to becoming a surgeon

Even as a child, she enjoyed working with her hands and performing small, complex tasks like origami. When she attended junior high school, her mother had some serious medical problems. The doctors didn’t know what was wrong. It was scary for Dr. McLellan and her family.

“During that time, it was interesting to see the different interactions doctors had with my family,” she recalled. “Some were fantastic. Some were lacking. Throughout that time, I kept thinking, ‘I could do this better.’ Maybe that’s just a little bit of the hubris of a child. I thought maybe I could do something different than some of these physicians.”

In junior high school, she had a wonderful science teacher who instilled in her a love for science. When she got to college, she decided she wanted to be a doctor. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with a concentration in Anatomy at Colorado State University.

“I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do surgery or family medicine,” she remarked. “I got into medical school at the University of Colorado. During our rotations, I found out I really liked laparoscopic surgery and general surgery.”

Dr. McLellan was able to match into a residency in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she completed a five-year program. After that, she did a one-year fellowship in minimally invasive surgery in Springfield, Massachusetts. After that, she decided she wanted to work in rural surgery. She worked in a small hospital in Wisconsin for six years. Then she decided it was time to come back to Colorado.

“I was so happy and elated when I found out that they were hiring at Estes Park Health,” she said. “I was able to become a surgeon here. It has been a dream come true. I hope that I can continue a really long career here.”

McLellan is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a member of the Colorado Medical Society, the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, and the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.

Enjoying mountain life in Estes Park

Dr. McLellan and her husband own a home in Estes Park off Highway 7. She lives six minutes away from the hospitals and enjoys here amazingly short commute to work.

Her husband is Evan Mallon, a writer who is working on his first novel. They have two dogs, Omi and Bee.

She enjoys living near her parents, her sister and family, and her brother and his wife who all live in Colorado.

“It’s been wonderful moving back to Colorado,” she noted. “I’m very close to my family. Being able to see them more frequently has been great.”

Dr. McLellan said she loves to knit. She started in 2020. She also does a little crochet and plans to learn to sew on a sewing machine she got for Christmas.

“I joke that I can sew on people, but I don’t really know how to sew on fabric,” she added.

She also likes to hike.

“I love the beauty of Estes Park,” Dr. McLellan stressed. “It’s remarkable. I have medical students now who have been rotating with us in general surgery. Just the other day one of my medical students said, ‘It is just so beautiful when you drive to the hospital. It’s amazing.’ You live in a dream here. And I’m so grateful to be here.”

The newest piece of equipment in the Diagnostic Imaging department of Estes Park Health was bought through the generous fundraising campaign of the 2024 Mrs. Rooftop Rodeo candidates.

The ten candidates for Mrs. Rooftop Rodeo raised a record-breaking amount of money. Altogether, these volunteers gathered more than $118,000 to fund a brand-new ultrasound machine for the hospital. This technology will – among other things – help with finding cancers and evaluating treatment.

“The 2024 Mrs. Rooftop Rodeo was extremely successful,” said registered sonographer and radiographer Marcy Kimbro. “They always are in raising the money, making people aware in the community, and now we have yet another state-of-the-art, brand new 2024 ultrasound machine.”

This modality uses sound to produce images of the inside of the body. These images help EPH’s onsite radiologist, Dr. John Knudtson, determine if there is an injury or disease process going on.

“We can capture images of fatty liver disease or kidney stones or gall bladder disease,” Kimbro explained. “We can possibly find cancers like bladder cancer or prostate cancer or breast cancer. We can do a carotid ultrasound to find plaque in the vessels. We can look for reproductive issues in the ovaries, uterus, IUD placements, and many more things.”

Ultrasound technologist Debbie Sells said the old ultrasound machine was not new to begin with and was reaching the end of its life.

“Machines become outdated pretty quickly in this day and age,” Sells stated. “The newer functions on this machine will allow us to offer some new services. This piece of equipment will allow us the detail that it takes us to perform needle aspirations and needle biopsies.”

A trainer from the company that makes the new ultrasound machine was at EPH last week training the three sonographers who will be using it. The applications specialist works for Philips, the company that makes the EPIQ Elite Diagnostic Ultrasound system now in use. She brainstormed with the people who use the machine to add capabilities they need and take away those they don’t need.

The machine is vital in keeping Estes Valley patients from having to drive a long way to get a quick diagnostic test. Now that EPH can perform needle biopsies, local patients can get an appointment – and possibly an answer – more quickly.

Sells pointed out that the most enjoyable part of her job performing ultrasounds is the direct patient interaction.

“We can teach the patient about something they may see on the screen,” she noted. “They want to know what it is. We can describe certain basic functions of the machine. It helps to educate the community as well as make them feel comfortable.”

When people stay in the hospital after injury, illness, or surgery, the Occupational Therapist (OT) is the professional who makes sure these patients can go home and get around their house again. The OT has a very practical job: making sure people can cook, clean, shower, get dressed, and many other activities of daily living.

Inna Wines is the newest inpatient OT on the medical/surgical unit at Estes Park Health.

“My family and I have been coming to Estes Park since I was born,” Wines explained. “Every year there were family reunions, family vacations. I knew that eventually I wanted to move to Colorado. I wasn’t sure it would be Estes Park specifically. It all just kind of worked out. In June, I was here for a girls’ trip. I decided, ‘I don’t want to leave. I want to stay. I want to figure out how to live here.’ I quit my job. I applied for new jobs and luckily found housing. My manager at EPH called and asked if I wanted a full-time job. I said, ‘Yes. That would be amazing.’”

Wines moved to Estes Park two months ago. She has enjoyed the slower pace, and what she describes as a good work/life balance.

“I grew up always knowing that I wanted to do some sort of service for others,” Wines said. “I wasn’t sure exactly what it was going to be. Healthcare always spoke to me.”

Wines and her brother were adopted from Russia. He has a lot of sensory issues and developmental issues and went to occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy growing up.

“He wouldn’t participate in his therapy unless I was part of it,” she noted. “I really got to see what they did, how it contributed to his life, how it changed the way he was able to socially interact with people.”

Wines originally thought she would go into pediatric OT because of her experience with her bother. But she did an acute care rotation in Dallas (where she is from) and fell in love with the geriatric population.

She earned her undergraduate degree in Public Health from the University of Arkansas. She went to Abilene Christian University (ACU) in West Texas for her master’s degree in occupational therapy. Before she moved to Estes Park, she worked at UT Southwestern in Texas for the last three years.

“I kind of got burned out just because I was seeing lots and lots of people throughout the day,” Wines stated. “I just knew I wanted a change.”

Since starting at EPH, Wines has helped many kinds of patients, from tourists who have been hiking and have fallen and hurt themselves to people who need hip or knee replacement surgery. OTs also worked with medication management and help patients with fine motor skills.

“The big focus is making sure everyone can get home,” Wines emphasized. “But if they can’t, OTs provide social workers, doctors, and nurses the information they need to decide if a patient needs to go to a skilled nursing facility, a nursing home, or assisted living.”

The goal of Occupation Therapy is consistent. Keep everybody as independent as possible.

Funds will help buy new cardiac ultrasound machine

Carolyne Boettger of Estes Park recently had an important test at Estes Park Health. It’s a cardiac ultrasound, also known as echocardiography. Carolyne has atrial fibrillation. Her doctors are monitoring her condition to see if there are any changes.

“I know when I go into A-fib,” she remarked “You can tell that it’s an irregular heartbeat. It’s been on and off. It isn’t all the time. It’s been controlled mostly through medications. I have had two ablations in the past. I have had several cardio versions when it wouldn’t snap out of it. Now there is an a-flutter condition, too, that’s all part of this whole thing. It’s very simple. They just run the stuff where they need to look at things and it comes up on a screen for them. Totally painless.

Tonya Fitzpatrick is a cardiovascular sonographer at EPH.

“I do ultrasounds of the heart and ultrasounds of the arteries,” Fitzpatrick explained. “We’re looking for narrowing of the arteries, how well the valve is working, the valves in the heart, how well the heart squeezes, so the function of the heart.”

The 20-to-30-minute exam yields a wealth of information for cardiologists like Dr. Chad Stoltz at EPH.

The cardiac ultrasound machine at Estes Park Health is almost 10 years old. It’s nearing the end of its life. Now the Estes Park Health Foundation is running a campaign to raise money to replace it with a state-of-the-art model.

Fitzpatrick performs five to eight of these exams four days a week at Estes Park Health. She said she is excited about the possibility of a brand-new machine.

“The images are much better, she noted, “and we’ll have the capability of doing 3D. I’ve seen a lot of patients here in Estes Park. From my experience, they’ve all been very grateful for the work that’s done here in the cardiology department. So, they would benefit from a new machine with optimization, maybe even 3D. They deserve the best of the best.

For patients like Boettger, who rely on Estes Park Health for many of their health care needs, she is in favor of the Foundation raising money for a new cardiac ultrasound machine.

“For me, it’s very important,” Boettger stressed. “Technology changes so fast that if you’re not keeping up, you really have a problem. One of the reasons we picked Estes Park to retire to was because it had a hospital and because it had a well-rated hospital. I have gotten excellent care all the way through. It is very important to me that I can continue to get that I can continue to get the care up here.

The EPH Foundation fall fundraising campaign is called “Waves of Hope.” For more information about this project and to donate, log on to cardiac – Estes Park Health. Estes Park Health. Mountaintop Medicine, Quality Care.

Estes Park Health Rehabilitation Services is adding hours and expanding services to meet the needs of the Estes Valley Community.

The Rehab center at 420 Steamer Drive next to Urgent Care is now open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

“By extending our hours Monday through Thursday, we hope to accommodate patients who need appointments later in the day, after work or after school,” said Kendra Vancil, EPH Rehabilitation Services & Urgent Care Manager.

Rehab Services has also hired a new physical therapist with specialized training in pediatrics. Kate Jamis, PT, moved to Estes Park from Kansas City and started working in mid-August.

Jamis decided she wanted to pursue physical therapy in middle school.

“I had a fascination with how the human body works,” Jamis explained. “I knew I wanted to work with kids. Physical therapy was the perfect opportunity to do both of those things together. I realized I could powerfully impact the lives of someone at such a young age, that was something that really appealed to me.”

She attended the University of Missouri where she took part in a five-year combined bachelor’s and master’s degree program. In Kansas City, she worked in several different pediatric facilities, mostly pre-schools, but also some outpatient settings like aquatics and a school district.

“A lot more pediatric patients need physical therapy than you might think,” she stressed. “There are many children who are born with challenges that might impact their physical development, like Down’s Syndrome, spina bifida, or prematurity. Children have accidents. They fall and hit their heads and that sometimes warrants therapy. Once the older children get into sports, they can get injured that way.”

Jamis said she likes working at the modern EPH Rehabilitation Services facility where she will also be helping adult patients with their physical therapy needs.

“I think we’re very fortunate,” she commented. “We have all the space we need and all the things we need. We have individual treatment rooms. There is always a room available for evaluations or talking about things that we don’t want to talk about in the gym with patients. I think we’re a little bit spoiled because it’s all shiny and new and lovely and wonderful.”

Having visited Estes Park for many years as a tourist, Jamis is happy to call the Estes Valley home.

“I saw the job opportunity and I had always wanted to live here,” she added. “The stars sort of aligned for us and we got to make the move. My drive to and from work is spectacular. Right now, the elk are everywhere, and the leaves are changing. I think we probably couldn’t have timed it better. We’re getting in all the wonderful summer and fall things before winter. My husband is most excited about winter because he is all about snow. We’re loving it.”

Jamis will have appointments open each Monday through Thursday at 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.

“The addition of pediatric physical therapy means that children in the Estes Valley will no longer have to drive to the front range to receive physical therapy,” Vancil noted. “We feel privileged to be able to provide these expanded services to our community.”

To contact EPH Rehabilitation Services, call 970-577-4368.

Amanda Ericson is Estes Park Health’s new registered dietitian. She joined the EPH team in August of 2024. Ericson helps patients in and out of the hospital.

“A registered dietitian provides education and counseling to patients regarding their nutrition needs and to understand how to adapt their eating patterns to accommodate their new diet or restrictions.”

Ericson was a baker for many years. She received a lot of requests from customers to make their favorite desserts gluten free, sugar free, dairy free. She began to learn more about nutrition and what ingredients were appropriate to use. She enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen.

Ericson began attending her local community college and taking as many nutrition classes as she could. She got a letter in the mail from Colorado State University to come join their program. She moved to Colorado to attend the program there. Pursuing further education, she attended University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) to get her master’s degree.

“At Estes Park Health, I have helped patients manage their GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease),” Ericson noted. “I’ve helped out with wound care and diabetic diets for the outpatient clinic.”

Before she worked at EPH, Ericson worked at the Medical Center of Aurora where she helped a wide variety of patients with different needs, from food tube feeding to helping patients in rehab recover from a fall or broken bones.

Estes Park Health has introduced outpatient nutrition counseling. This is a great way for people to manage their health by learning more about what to eat and how to eat.

“The services that we will offer are geared toward what insurance covers,” Ericson explained. “Medicare covers diabetes and renal diets. I will also work with other insurance companies if patients have GERD or other diseases that could benefit from dietary help. I love that I get the creativity to design nutrition handouts or presentations. I really like seeing how it makes it easier for patients to understand. Most of the nutrition education that is available to people is black-and-white writing. It’s not interesting and the information is ultimately not absorbed. I feel like what I create for them is easier for them to understand and remember.”

Ericson believes it is important for a small Community Access Hospital like Estes Park Health to have a registered dietitian on staff.

“For a lot of patients, this might be the only opportunity they have to receive this type of education,” she stressed. “They might not receive that when they’re an outpatient or living at home. A lot of what you find on the internet you can’t really trust all the sources. I can use my education and training to collaborate with all these different resources and then make it easy for them to understand.”

Ericson still enjoys baking. While she studied at UCCS, she had the opportunity to work with other nonprofits and develop whole grain products.  

“A lot of the baking I do now is whole grain focused using Colorado-grown grains,” she added. “I’m teaching people while I’m baking how to support their local communities and farmers.”

To learn more about outpatient nutrition counseling at Estes Park Health, call the EPH main number at (970) 586-2317 and ask to be connected to the registered dietitian.

Along with traditional yearly mammograms and the occasional ultrasound test, women at risk of breast cancer can also be screened with a sophisticated machine called Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRI. Estes Park Health is adding breast MRIs as a new service in the Diagnostic Imaging Department. Technologists use the same machine outfitted with a special breast coil to help create pristine images of the breasts and surrounding tissue.

An MRI uses powerful magnets, radio waves and a computer to create images radiologists read.

“MRI works with a high strength magnetic field,” explained EPH Radiologist Dr. John Knudtson. “There’s no radiation involved. It uses a totally different way of looking into the tissue. The MRI is better at separating out the different tissue types to determine which ones are normal and which ones are abnormal. It’s by far the most sensitive way to find breast cancer and in the cases of patients who have breast cancer, to be able to find out where the disease is, how much is there, where it all is, and get the patients the appropriate care and staging that they need.”

EPH Diagnostic Imaging Manager Jenn Hardin was one of the first women to help try out the new breast MRI scan.

“It was very quick,” Hardin observed. “It was comfortable to lay on. There’s a lot of cushioning underneath it. So, my ribs didn’t hurt. My sternum didn’t hurt. Having my arms down by my side really wasn’t too bad.”

The breast MRI exam only takes 15 to 18 minutes to conduct. Along with mammography and ultrasound, it provides doctors with a wealth of information.

“All those things work together in unison to provide you with the best information possible,” Dr. Knudtson noted.

MRI can be especially useful to image women with dense breasts, to gauge the impact of chemotherapy, or to stage a malignancy.

“The MRI machine that we have already had all the software and the capability,” Dr. Knudtson said. “We did need a new breast coil which is specifically used just for breast imaging. The breast coil we purchased is state-of-the-art. It’s much more comfortable than some of the older breast coils. It’s about as good as you can get in terms of capability and comfort.”

The new test will benefit patients of all ages. That’s important since many Estes Valley women are seniors.

“As you age, your risk for breast cancer does increase,” Dr. Knudtson emphasized. “Even if you don’t have any family history, even if you haven’t had any problems previously, the majority of breast cancers still happen in older women who have no family history at all.”

Until now, Estes Valley patients would need to travel to other medical facilities in the area to get this important test. Dr. Knudtson says he is excited to offer this test at Estes Park Health.

“This is what I love,” he said. “This is my passion. It’s what I’ve done extra training in. It’s really what I’ve enjoyed doing in trying to impact the patients’ lives. I certainly can’t prevent cancer, but I want to try and get as much information to the patient as I can so that they can feel empowered and get as much done here so that it is as convenient and comfortable as it possibly can be. I want to help them get through what is always going to be a very difficult journey.”

Hardin echoed Dr. Knudtson’s sentiment.

“We are so excited to be able to offer this new service line to our community,” she commented. “Having MRI breast is going to really enhance our breast cancer screening as well as women’s health in general.”

For advanced breast imaging conducted by compassionate professionals, think Estes Park Health. Mountaintop Medicine, Quality Care.

To watch a video about breast MRIs at Estes Park Health, go to https://youtu.be/Vb5Z6M09wgQ.