History
What started out in a clinic on the grounds of the Colorado State Hospital back in 1983, has grown into an organization with sites and a presence throughout Pueblo County.
In 2023, Pueblo Community Health Center (PCHC) was proud to celebrate its 40th anniversary and continues to provide primary health care access to those who are most in need. While services were originally housed on the grounds of the Colorado State Hospital, PCHC moved to St. Mary-Corwin Hospital in 1986 and assumed responsibility for the Avondale Clinic that same year. In 1987, the organization purchased a building at 110 East Routt Avenue. This clinic served as its primary location until 2009 and is occupied by the PCHC pharmacy and administrative offices today.
The Health Care for the Homeless program has been serving the most vulnerable in Pueblo since 1997. The Grand Avenue Clinic is where unhoused patients can receive care on walk-in basis. Further integration occurred when behavioral health services began being offered to registered patients in 1996.
Expansion in 2000 occurred when 2030 Lake Avenue was purchased for a stand-alone dental clinic. Named after Judge Patti O’Rourke, it was to honor the generous gift she made to PCHC that seeded the Pueblo Community Health Center Foundation endowment. Midwife practice began in 2000, and the first in-house patient pharmacy opened in 2001.
In October 2002, the Park Hill Clinic at 1302 East Fifth Street opened its doors. This clinic is where the Early Intervention Services (EIS) program began to serve those living with HIV/AIDS. Three years later, a second patient pharmacy was opened in the lower level of that building.
The year 2009 was an especially busy one for PCHC when school-based wellness centers were opened at several sites in District 60 and 70. In November of that same year, a beautiful 41,000 square foot clinic at 300 Colorado Avenue opened (its footprint further expanded in 2014, increasing the clinic by 7,000 square feet). The expanded space enables additional patient capacity of 10,000 over the coming decade.
The most recent jewel in PCHC’s crown was construction of a 64,000 square foot, state-of-the-art health care facility in the heart of Pueblo’s east side at 1301 East 7th Street that opened in January 2022. The East Side Clinic offers team-based, integrated primary medical, behavioral, and oral health care, and includes pharmacy, laboratory, and case management services under one roof. PCHC’s goal for integrated primary care at this site is a minimum of 5,000 additional patients served over the next ten years (in addition to the 6,600 served at Park Hill Clinic before its closing in 2021).
Offering more than primary medical, behavioral health and dental care services, PCHC houses programs ranging from Nurse Family Partnership (for first time moms), perinatal care, Early Intervention Services (for HIV/AIDS), Health Care for the Homeless, Migrant Seasonal Farmworker, case management, and enrollment services--the breadth of support to the community is immense.
While locations have moved and expanded throughout the organization’s 40+-year history, one thing has remained the same: The mission of Pueblo Community Health Center--Since 1983, to provide primary care to those in need, regardless of ability to pay.
