Durango’s shuttered Planned Parenthood clinic will not reopen until at least June, said Adrienne Mansanares, CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.
During a trip chalked full of visits to Planned Parenthood facilities, staff and donors in Southwest Colorado, Mansanares said the staffing problems that forced the Durango health center to close indefinitely in September have prevented it from reopening.
The clinic needs a nurse practitioner on staff to deliver its slate of services, which includes medicated abortions, birth control interventions, emergency contraception (known as Plan B or the morning-after pill), pregnancy testing and planning, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.
Planned Parenthood’s community health service programs have continued to operate despite the clinic’s closure.
Although Mansanares said the organization is committed to reopening the Durango clinic, the hiring process has been beset by one issue: the cost of housing.
“We’ve had some promising candidates that, sadly, once they discovered how expensive it is to live here, declined an offer,” she said.
The job posting offers a wage between $44 per hour and $61 per hour depending on experience in addition to a $6,000 sign-on bonus. The organization has not yet explored the feasibility of offering some housing along with the position, although the CEO said she is open to it.
Even once an advanced practice provider is secured, it will be at least three months and likely closer to six before they are fully trained and the practice can reopen.
In the meantime, Mansanares said that patients are being served by other providers in the community, through Planned Parenthood’s telehealth offerings and at clinics in Farmington and Cortez.
Planned Parenthood in Durango provided many of the same services available at other providers in town, with the exception of abortion.
The Durango clinic provided only medicated abortion – not procedural abortions as a result of the high overhead costs compared to the low demand for the service. And medication abortions can be prescribed after an online visit, which is of little impact to patients, Mansanares said.
“From what I know and hear from our patients, they want health care,” she said. “And how it’s delivered is not as important as being affordable. That’s the No. 1 concern I hear from our patients.”
Despite threats from the new Republican presidential administration to defund Planned Parenthood, most of the organization’s reimbursement comes through state channels and is not at risk in Colorado. That’s not necessarily the case in other states, from which patients often travel for care.
“I am eager to reopen Planned Parenthood in Durango, and I’m hopeful that this next round of candidates, that we do have someone who we can hire,” Mansanares said.
rschafir@durangoherald.com