Understanding Our Community’s Healthcare Performance
Healthcare affects far more than individual well-being. It influences workforce participation, household finances, business stability, and the strength of our regional economy.
Local First Foundation created the Healthcare Performance Dashboard to better understand whether La Plata County residents are receiving good value from our community’s significant investment in healthcare. The dashboard compares La Plata County with Colorado, the nation, and similar rural resort counties across 24 measures related to access, prevention, healthcare costs, health outcomes, workforce capacity, and social drivers of health.
By identifying both strengths and opportunities for improvement, this work provides a starting point for greater transparency, community accountability, and collaborative action.
Strengths to Build On
La Plata County performs better than the state average in several important areas, including childhood immunization, life expectancy, preventable hospital use, and healthcare workforce capacity. Three local healthcare providers have also received five-star quality ratings from Medicare.
Gaps to Close
The dashboard identifies several areas where additional focus could have a meaningful impact, including:
- Dental care for children and adults
- Breast and colorectal cancer screening
- Healthcare and out-of-pocket costs
- Access to food, housing, and childcare
- Mental health and overall self-reported health
Healthcare costs in La Plata County are higher than average even though residents use the hospital less frequently, suggesting that higher prices—not greater healthcare use—may be contributing to local costs.
What Improvement Could Mean for La Plata County
This would be a strong place to use the infographic from page 5 or recreate the information as website cards.
Reaching the performance of the best peer rural resort counties could mean:
- 1,774 more adults receiving an annual dental visit
- 1,138 more adults receiving colorectal cancer screening
- 2,113 fewer unnecessary emergency room visits
- 1,683 more residents having adequate access to food
- 845 fewer residents experiencing frequent mental distress
- 1,000 more residents reporting good overall health
Further improvement could also reduce healthcare costs by approximately $974 per person and save patients an average of $378 in out-of-pocket expenses.
Healthy People Support a Healthy Local Economy
Local First Foundation’s work is grounded in the understanding that the health of people, businesses, and the economy are closely connected.
Affordable, accessible healthcare helps local businesses attract and retain employees, supports household financial stability, and allows residents to participate more fully in community and economic life. Through research, advocacy, partnerships, and collaborative workgroups, Local First Foundation works to strengthen healthcare access and affordability throughout La Plata County and Southwest Colorado.
This dashboard builds on Local First Foundation’s existing healthcare work, including its partnership with Peak Health Alliance, which helped reduce health insurance premiums by an average of 14% for thousands of local residents by bringing additional insurance competition to the region.
La Plata County has meaningful strengths, but better performance is within reach. The report finds that a 19% average improvement across the dashboard’s 24 measures would bring the county in line with the strongest-performing peer communities.
Project Support
Local First Foundation is grateful for the financial support of:
- Rocky Mountain Health Foundation
- Ballantine Family Fund
- LPEA Roundup Foundation
- City of Durango Community Support Funding
- La Plata County American Rescue Plan Act Funding
The dashboard was prepared by Doug McCarthy, Health Advisor to Local First Foundation, with input from members of the La Plata Healthcare Improvement Coalition.
