Of 12 hospitals surveyed statewide in the UCHealth system, Memorial Hospital Central in Colorado Springs saw the second-highest jump over the past three months of new patients who appear to be immigrants, according to data UCHealth released Wednesday.
“Memorial Hospital Central has had the second-greatest impact among UCHealth hospitals, next to University of Colorado Hospital (in Aurora),” said Dan Weaver, system spokesman.
“In general, UCHealth and our hospitals see all patients — we will take care of anyone who comes to our hospitals or emergency departments,” he said.
Thousands of immigrants who have entered the U.S. through the southern border in recent months have made their way to Denver. Colorado Springs has had some arrivals but not an influx, according to announcements city leaders made last week. But UCHealth facilities around the state are feeling the effects of the new arrivals, hospital officials said.
For UCHealth’s two major hospitals in Colorado Springs, Memorial Hospital Central and Memorial Hospital North, 1,200 new patients who appeared to be from outside the country sought care from Nov. 1 through Jan. 31, Weaver said. That represents a 77% increase from the same time frame one year ago.
Statewide over the past three months, UCHealth estimates that 5,800 new immigrant patients received care at a UCHealth location, a 69% increase over the same three months of the previous year.
The situation has reached a dire level, Dr. Richard Zane, UCHealth chief innovation officer and professor and chair of the department of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said in a statement.
“The demands on our hospitals and providers as well as the amount of uncompensated care we are providing is now unsustainable,” he said. “All of the hospitals in Colorado need support for the costs of the uninsured, migrant patients they care for.”
UCHealth does not ask people if they are undocumented or their immigration status but determined the numbers of patients from people who voluntarily identified as immigrants, patients who did not have a Social Security number, or those who stated they were from another country.
The data only includes patients who are uninsured and ineligible for Medicaid.
Memorial Hospital Central and Memorial Hospital North provided about 2,900 visits and admissions for the newcomers — a 64% increase in volume compared with November 2022 through January 2023.
In all, the two hospitals attended to more than 4,200 medical encounters with immigrants in the past three months, officials said. That number reflects a 69% increase in encounters over the previous year.
Statewide, 28,000 immigrants visited UCHealth emergency departments, sought outpatient appointments and were admitted to hospitals over the past three months. That’s a 92% increase.
Weaver calls on the state or federal government to defray the "significant costs" hospitals are incurring
“It’s important that all hospitals in our state that are being impacted by these patients receive some kind of assistance to help cover some of those unpaid medical bills,” he said.
Uncompensated medical care for immigrants from November 2023 through January 2024 totaled more than $17 million systemwide he said, and topped $32 million over the past seven months.
That equates to a nearly $10 million loss from Nov. 1, 2023, through Jan. 31, and about $19 million from July 2023 through last month, Weaver said.
“This is not only a financial issue; facilities, staff and providers are stretched as they accommodate these additional patients,” he said.
The additional demand also has nearly doubled the need for interpreters in the emergency department and elsewhere, Weaver said.
In the last quarter of 2023, the system provided more than 6,000 translation needs, compared with 3,800 translation services in the fourth quarter of 2021.
UCHealth has 14 hospitals in its nonprofit health care system. However, its newest additions, Parkview’s two hospitals in Pueblo, are not yet on its electronic medical record system, so data from those locations was not available for the survey on immigrants, Weaver said.
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