Region Overview
As a nonprofit organization, Kaiser Permanente Colorado's mission is to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. Our goal of total community health is deeply embedded in our nearly 40-year history in Colorado as a prevention-oriented health care organization. We invest in our state's communities because health is a human condition that affects us all. Kaiser Permanente has long recognized that our members, our neighbors, our employees, our physicians, our families, and our friends cannot be healthy if they live in unhealthy communities—and we know this is true even when they receive exceptional health care in our medical offices. Simply put, we want to improve the health of our communities because we all live here and want to see a better Colorado.
We invest the time, expertise, and resources of over 4,000 Kaiser Permanente Colorado physicians and employees to improve our state's most pressing health concerns. We focus our investments in programs that address access to health care issues—particularly for Coloradans who face barriers in obtaining it—improving public health, and increasing the quality of health care. Additionally, we direct our investments through targeted grant-making to other nonprofit charitable groups and sponsorship/partnership efforts with community-minded organizations.
The health challenges in Colorado communities today are significant:
- The cost of health care continues to rise, resulting in over 790,000 uninsured Coloradans (18% of our state's population) and it is estimated similar numbers of people are under-insured.
- The safety net of social services that supports low income or uninsured Coloradans is strained. In 2006, Colorado community health centers provided 1.6 million visits to more than 396,000 patients. It is also estimated that Coloradans who have coverage spend an extra $950 annually to cover the costs of those who show up at hospitals without it.
- Over 50% of our state's residents are considered obese or overweight, putting them at greater risk for developing chronic conditions such as asthma, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes – conditions that are costly to treat and manage. In Colorado, medical expenses directly attributed to obesity costs every taxpayer $128 annually.
- We are not succeeding with the health of our children in many areas, including low childhood immunization rates, higher prevalence of low birth weights, and increasing pediatric obesity rates. (It is estimated 1 in 3 Colorado babies born in 2000 will develop diabetes during their lifetime as a result of childhood obesity.)
- We are facing a shortage of care providers, particularly primary care physicians, specialists, and nurses. In 10 years, we estimate a shortage of nearly 17,000 registered nurses in Colorado.
Faced with facts like these, the need for a "total community" approach is more evident than ever. To address these challenges Kaiser Permanente Colorado invests in a diverse mix of community benefit efforts.