When Bryan and Margie Weingarten began helping Aspen Valley Health develop a comprehensive Women’s Health Program, the vision was straightforward: create a more connected healthcare experience for women throughout the Roaring Fork Valley.
Now, that vision is moving into a much more detailed stage.
As chairs of the Women’s Health Committee, Bryan and Margie are helping support an effort that has moved beyond the broader concept of what a women’s health program could become. Aspen Valley Health is now mapping how that care should actually work-from a woman’s first point of contact through screening, diagnosis, treatment, referrals, follow-up, and ongoing care.
That work is being organized around eight priority care pathways covering different stages and needs in women’s health.
The goal is not simply to add more services.
It is to understand how the services already available fit together, where patients encounter gaps, and where Aspen Valley Health can build a stronger system around them.
Starting With the Patient Journey
One of the most important parts of the work now underway is mapping the patient journey in detail.
For each care pathway, the teams are examining how a patient enters the system, what screenings and diagnostics may be needed, when care should escalate, which specialists may become involved, what follow-up should look like, and how a patient appropriately moves through and eventually exits a particular pathway.
That level of detail changes the conversation.
Instead of asking only, “What services should we offer?” the organization can begin asking a more useful question: “What does a woman actually experience as she moves through the healthcare system?”
That distinction is particularly important when care involves several providers or specialties.
A patient may begin with primary care, require diagnostic testing, need a specialist, return for follow-up, and eventually need another form of preventive care. If those pieces operate independently, the patient can end up carrying much of the responsibility for connecting them.
A more coordinated system can change that experience.
Pregnancy and Breast Health Offer Two Different Examples
The pathway work is already getting into specific clinical areas.
Pregnancy, for example, involves far more than a single prenatal appointment. The current planning process is looking at routine prenatal care, laboratory work, blood-pressure monitoring, in-clinic ultrasound, high-risk pregnancy and maternal-fetal medicine escalation, delivery, postpartum care, and pregnancy loss.
Each step represents a potential connection point.
Breast health presents another example. The planning extends beyond screening and diagnostics to include genetics, high-risk patients, breast surgery access, and connections with outside resources such as Susan G. Komen.
Looking at these areas as complete pathways can help identify where care is already strong, where additional capacity may be needed, and where connections between providers and organizations can be improved.
That is an important shift from thinking about healthcare as a collection of individual appointments.
The objective is to build a system around the patient.
Technology Can Help – But It Cannot Do Everything
Another part of the planning is determining how technology can make the patient journey easier.
Aspen Valley Health is looking at digital navigation through its Epic workflows, Emmie, personalized education, questionnaires, reminders, and remote-monitoring tools.
Used effectively, those tools can help patients understand what comes next and allow the healthcare system to proactively guide them toward the appropriate step.
But technology is only part of the model.
Some patients will need a person to step in.
That is why the program is also defining a human-navigation component. Care navigators and other members of the care team may need to coordinate referrals, help patients move between providers or organizations, close care gaps, or support more complicated situations.
The distinction matters.
A reminder can tell someone that an appointment is due. A navigator can help determine why the appointment has not happened and what needs to be done to make it possible.
The strongest system will need both.
Understanding What the Valley Has – and What It Still Needs
The pathway work is also giving Aspen Valley Health an opportunity to look closely at the healthcare resources already available in the region.
The teams are examining what AVH and Aspen Valley Women’s Center currently provide, where capacity exists, where care is leaving the valley, and where gaps remain.
That information can help answer practical questions.
Where should AVH invest?
Where would partnerships make the most sense?
Which services could be strengthened locally?
Where additional staffing is required?
And where might better coordination allow existing resources to serve more patients?
These questions are especially important in a regional healthcare system, where patients sometimes have to leave their communities to access specialized services.
Aspen Valley Health already provides a range of women’s health services, including preventive care, reproductive health, behavioral health, nutritional counseling, laboratory services, and coordinated access to breast imaging. Its obstetrics program also provides care across different stages of women’s lives through a partnership with All Valley Women’s Care.
The new planning process is about understanding how those resources – and future ones-can work together more effectively.
Connecting Clinical Planning With Financial Reality
There is another important step ahead.
Once the clinical pathways and navigation model are substantially mapped, Aspen Valley Health will connect that work to a deeper financial analysis.
That analysis will consider current patient volumes and revenue, the amount of care currently leaving the market, available capacity, potential volume that could be retained locally, new service opportunities, staffing requirements, operating costs, and capital and technology needs.
That connection between clinical design and financial planning is essential.
A strong healthcare vision has to be clinically sound, but it also has to be sustainable.
The objective is to understand not only what patients need, but what Aspen Valley Health can realistically build and support over the long term.
Building Something That Can Grow With the Valley
For Bryan and Margie Weingarten, the development of the Women’s Health Program represents an opportunity to contribute to something that goes well beyond a single new service.
The work is about building infrastructure.
It is about understanding the needs of women throughout different stages of life, connecting existing resources, identifying gaps, using technology intelligently, and creating a system in which patients have both digital tools and human support when they need it.
That kind of work takes time.
The current planning is expected to produce a much more detailed picture of the program over the coming weeks, with the clinical model, navigation strategy, capacity assessment, and financial opportunity coming together for the Women’s Health Steering Committee in October.
At that point, the conversation can move from vision to decisions about priorities, investment, and implementation.
For the Roaring Fork Valley, that may ultimately be the most important part of the effort.
A comprehensive women’s health program is not defined simply by the number of services it offers. It is defined by how well those services work together-and by whether a woman can move through the system knowing where to go, what comes next, and who is there to help.
That is the work now underway at Aspen Valley Health.
And it is what could turn an ambitious vision for women’s healthcare into a practical, connected model of care for women and families throughout the valley.
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