Abrupt departure of doctors from Colorado Springs medical clinic forces its closure
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Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect comments from CommonSpirit Health
An abrupt departure of all medical providers at the CommonSpirit Vascular Surgery clinic inside Penrose Hospital has forced the office to shut down, according to the facility.
The clinic closed permanently as of Sept. 6, said a woman who answered the phone on Tuesday.
Letters have been sent out informing patients of the situation, she said.
But 11 days after the shuttering, patients such as retired Air Force Col. Richard Rauschkolb said he still had not received a letter about the situation.
The Colorado Springs resident had been a patient at the clinic for eight years and in recent weeks had some tests done to plan for needed vascular surgery.
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But an appointment to review the tests and schedule his surgery never happened.
“On the day of the appointment, I get a call from Penrose saying the doctors have left,” Rauschkolb said.
“Here I am, I can barely walk, and Penrose has done nothing to reach out other than to tell me I need to start the scheduling process over again. They gave me six phone numbers of other doctors, and five were in Denver.”
The vascular clinic on the fifth floor of Penrose Hospital at 2222 N. Nevada Ave., had employed two surgeons, Dr. William Chambers and Dr. William Fry, along with two physicians’ assistants and one nurse practitioner. The doctors could not be located for comment.
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Patients need to see their primary care providers to obtain referrals for other vascular physicians and surgeons, said the woman who answered the clinic’s phone.
“We have no providers at all,” she said. “We cannot refer patients.”
A Gazette request to CommonSpirit Health for an interview or information about what’s going on produced a response after press time Tuesday.
“CommonSpirit Penrose Hospital is grateful to Dr. William Chambers and Dr. William Fry for their decades-long service to our patients in the Colorado Springs community,” spokesperson Lindsay Radford said in a statement from the hospital system. “We are disappointed they chose to leave the hospital, and we recognize the inconvenience this causes their patients.”
CommonSpirit is “actively working to connect these patients with high-quality medical care,” the statement said adding that Penrose Hospital “will welcome new vascular surgeons in the coming months, in addition to other medical specialists who will be joining our team of compassionate caregivers.”
The Chicago-based, Catholic-affiliated nonprofit health care network finalized an agreement in August 2023 to assume management of 15 of 20 hospitals that had been under the Centura Health system for 27 years in Colorado and western Kansas. That included the hospitals and affiliated clinics of Penrose-St. Francis Health Services in Colorado Springs.
Five Adventist hospitals remain under Advent Health, though none are in Colorado Springs.
It is unclear why all medical providers at the vascular clinic left suddenly.
The clinic provided treatment for “a broad spectrum of general surgical issues” and was “involved with the patient’s care from diagnosis, through surgery and postoperative care,” according to its website.
“Our team has vast expertise and experience in diagnosing and treating common, complex and rare vascular diseases, as well as in traditional open and endovascular procedures,” the website states.
Abrupt departure of doctors from Colorado Springs medical clinic forces its closure
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect comments from CommonSpirit Health
An abrupt departure of all medical providers at the CommonSpirit Vascular Surgery clinic inside Penrose Hospital has forced the office to shut down, according to the facility.
The clinic closed permanently as of Sept. 6, said a woman who answered the phone on Tuesday.
Letters have been sent out informing patients of the situation, she said.
But 11 days after the shuttering, patients such as retired Air Force Col. Richard Rauschkolb said he still had not received a letter about the situation.
The Colorado Springs resident had been a patient at the clinic for eight years and in recent weeks had some tests done to plan for needed vascular surgery.
But an appointment to review the tests and schedule his surgery never happened.
“On the day of the appointment, I get a call from Penrose saying the doctors have left,” Rauschkolb said.
“Here I am, I can barely walk, and Penrose has done nothing to reach out other than to tell me I need to start the scheduling process over again. They gave me six phone numbers of other doctors, and five were in Denver.”
The vascular clinic on the fifth floor of Penrose Hospital at 2222 N. Nevada Ave., had employed two surgeons, Dr. William Chambers and Dr. William Fry, along with two physicians’ assistants and one nurse practitioner. The doctors could not be located for comment.
Patients need to see their primary care providers to obtain referrals for other vascular physicians and surgeons, said the woman who answered the clinic’s phone.
“We have no providers at all,” she said. “We cannot refer patients.”
A Gazette request to CommonSpirit Health for an interview or information about what’s going on produced a response after press time Tuesday.
“CommonSpirit Penrose Hospital is grateful to Dr. William Chambers and Dr. William Fry for their decades-long service to our patients in the Colorado Springs community,” spokesperson Lindsay Radford said in a statement from the hospital system. “We are disappointed they chose to leave the hospital, and we recognize the inconvenience this causes their patients.”
CommonSpirit is “actively working to connect these patients with high-quality medical care,” the statement said adding that Penrose Hospital “will welcome new vascular surgeons in the coming months, in addition to other medical specialists who will be joining our team of compassionate caregivers.”
The Chicago-based, Catholic-affiliated nonprofit health care network finalized an agreement in August 2023 to assume management of 15 of 20 hospitals that had been under the Centura Health system for 27 years in Colorado and western Kansas. That included the hospitals and affiliated clinics of Penrose-St. Francis Health Services in Colorado Springs.
Five Adventist hospitals remain under Advent Health, though none are in Colorado Springs.
It is unclear why all medical providers at the vascular clinic left suddenly.
The clinic provided treatment for “a broad spectrum of general surgical issues” and was “involved with the patient’s care from diagnosis, through surgery and postoperative care,” according to its website.
“Our team has vast expertise and experience in diagnosing and treating common, complex and rare vascular diseases, as well as in traditional open and endovascular procedures,” the website states.