At Doctors Care, our mission is to provide affordable, high-quality health care and services that promote overall health and wellness for those in need.
Located in Littleton, Colorado, Doctors Care is a private nonprofit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to improving health access for low-income individuals in the South Metro Denver area. Through its integrated primary care clinic, network of specialists and hospital services, and programs designed to address socioeconomic barriers to health and well-being, thousands of individuals have access to quality, affordable primary and specialty care and support services through Doctors Care.
Our Vision:
A community where people in need have equal access to health care and are engaged in their own well-being.
Our Values
- Compassion: We are dedicated to helping those in need.
- Social Responsibility: We believe our organization is based upon grassroots and hands-on work in our community.
- Inclusivity: We believe our work succeeds when we embrace a variety of voices and thrives in an atmosphere of trust and empathy.
- Collaboration: We actively learn from our clients, partners, and each other to deepen our understanding of the population we serve.
- Respect: We treat those we serve and each other with courtesy, politeness, kindness and dignity.
DEI Statement
Doctors Care is built on a foundation of inclusiveness, compassion, and respect for all. For over 30 years, Doctors Care has stood for health equity and access, and strived to decrease health disparities, a symptom of an inequitable system. Today, we stand in solidarity with our community, supporting those who face systematic injustices. Whether a result of race, gender identity, religious affiliation, or others, we can, we must, we will support the fight for respect, compassion and equality for all. We can speak out against inequities that undermine our mission and the people we serve. We must demand change on local, state, and federal levels. We will stand up to discrimination witnessed in our society and broader systems. It is time to do better and advocate for change.
Doctors Care works toward equitable, stigma-free, compassionate reproductive care by ensuring everyone has access to information about their reproductive health in an educational and judgment-free environment.
THE DOCTORS CARE STORY
Our History
A Need is Recognized
A committee of Arapahoe Medical Society physicians gathered to address the growing issue of the uninsured and lack of medical care. The committee agreed that if many physicians agreed to care for these patients, the burden of care would be lessened.
Doctors Care Opens
Committee leader Gary VanderArk, M.D. founded Doctors Care and successfully signed up all 129 physicians of the Arapahoe Medical Society. By opening its door on Valentine’s Day, Doctors Care opened its heart to the uninsured desperate for medical care.
Doctors Care for Kids Opens
The Doctors Care for Kids Clinic opened to serve newborn to 18-year-old children.
Services Are Expanded
Doctors Care made a commitment to find the resources in-house to treat a broader range of patients by increasing the clinic age cap to 24 years.
Keeping Families Together
The Doctors Care for Kids Clinic is renamed to Doctors Care Clinic to represent another increase of the age cap to 30 years old. This time, the expansion was directed at keeping young families together for their primary care needs.
Strengthening Doctors Care
United by a shared community mission, volunteer medical providers donated $16 million in services to Doctors Care patients.
Doctors Care Upgrades
In May, Doctors Care moves to a new location at 609 W. Littleton Boulevard. The new facility allows for expanded clinic size and incorporates medical care, program services, and administrative offices all in one space. Following the move, Doctors Care completes major upgrades to existing health information technology systems. New care management software, Plexis, for the program and electronic medical records and practice management software, eClinicalWorks, for the clinic are implemented and utilized by Doctors Care staff and volunteers.
Celebrating 25 Years
Doctors Care celebrates its 25th Anniversary with a new print publication and web-based responsive guide, “Maximizing Health Care for Colorado’s Underserved”, produced by Doctors Care and made available to the public. The print piece and web-based guide shares Doctors Care’s model for delivering health care, complete with best practices, lessons learned and sample resources and documentation. Doctors Care holds a 25th Anniversary celebration event at the Inverness Hotel on April 5, 2013. Doctors Care finalizes the purchase of the new facility.
Four Core Services are Implemented
Doctors Care board and staff adapt programs and services to better meet the needs of the underserved into newly- branded, “4 Core Services”: the Clinic, Access for the Uninsured (formerly Sliding-Fee-Scale), Connection to Coverage and Health Navigation. Over 4,000 individuals receive quality, affordable primary and specialty care and services through Doctors Care.
Doctors Care Celebrates 30 Years
A 30th Anniversary celebration event was held at the Barn at Raccoon Creek on August 23, 2018. In the past 30 years, Doctors Care has served more than 30,000 low-income residents of South Metro Denver and provided more than $70 million in medical services to individuals in need.
