DENVER INDIAN HEALTH AND FAMILY SERVICES
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Story
    • Our Board
    • Our Team
  • Services
    • Medical >
      • WWC CPED
    • Dental
    • Pharmacy
    • Behavioral Health >
      • BH Tips
      • Native Connections
    • Health and Wellness >
      • Spirit Within Project
      • Coach's Corner
      • Nutrition Nook >
        • Nutrition Resources
    • Health Insurance
  • Community
    • Partners
    • Resources
    • Research
    • Calendar
  • News
  • Contact Us
    • New Patients
    • Volunteer
    • Give
    • Employment
  • Patient Portal

News from the Clinic

Highlights from the newsletter and more!

Doing Our Part - Surveying for COVID-19

6/23/2020

 
Picture
Besides washing our hands, wearing masks, and practicing social distancing, one of the most important things DIHFS can do to protect ourselves and the communities we serve is to contribute to the surveillance of COVID-19. What does that mean? In large part, it means identifying people who are positive carriers of the virus known as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). There is still so much we DO NOT know about this disease. It is important to track, trace contacts of people infected, and follow their progression of the disease. This is surveillance in a nutshell. ​
Early identification allows us to provide education to infected individuals to prevent spreading the disease to family, friends, co-workers, and anyone else they may come into contact with while they are ill. It gives us an early warning system for potential areas of the community that have high numbers of cases, so-called HOT SPOTS. Early identification also gives us data that we can use to plan for managing the current pandemic and predicting what this virus may have in store for us in the future.

DIHFS is contributing to this task of surveillance for both the state of Colorado and the Indian Health Service by offering COVID-19 testing. This drive-up testing site is using a deep nasal swab to check for active COVID-19 infection. This version of the test can only tell us if someone is shedding the virus at the time of testing. It will not identify someone who may have had the virus in the past and has recovered from it. 

DIHFS has partnered with Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Parker, CO to provide testing. Tests are being done by appointment only on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons to registered DIHFS patients. The drive-up testing site is located at the DIHFS clinic, at 2880 W. Holden Place in Denver. The process is easy, simply call the clinic at 303-953-6600 and ask to be scheduled for testing. You will come to the clinic and be screened by the students of Rocky Vista University, who are supervised by the DIHFS medical staff. DIHFS staff can answer some of your questions at the time of testing and will help you understand what your results mean when they are available. The results generally take 3-4 days and a member of the clinic staff will call you with the results as soon as they are available. We recommend everyone having symptoms of COVID-19, especially fever, chills, body aches, and shortness of breath to get tested as soon as possible. If someone believes they have been exposed to COVID-19 through an infected person, they are encouraged to get tested as well.

DIHFS is proud to offer these tests and grateful to both the Rocky Vista University students and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment lab for helping us protect the patients and families of the DIHFS community. 

Karen Hoffman, APN-BC
Adult Nurse Practitioner 

Comments are closed.
    Did you miss our last newsletter? Now you can read it here:
    Read the Newsletter!

    Categories

    All
    Community
    Denver
    Diabetes
    Enrollment
    Fitness
    From The Desk
    Health And Wellness
    IHS
    Media
    Medical Care
    Medication
    Nutrition
    Oral Health
    Pharmacy
    Policy
    Support And Self Help
    Support And Self-Help
    Travel

    Archives

    November 2022
    September 2022
    March 2022
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018

    RSS Feed

about us

About
Our Story
Our Board
Our Team

services

Medical
Dental 
Pharmacy
​Behavioral Health
Health and Wellness
Spirit Within Project
​Coach's Corner
Nutrition Nook
​Enrollment

resources

Partners
Resources
Research
Calendar
​Blog

connect

Contact Us
New Patients
Give!
Employment​
Ph. (303) 953-6600
Clinic Fax. (303) 781-4333 
Admin Fax. (303) 643-5885

2880 W. Holden Place
Denver, Colorado
​80204
Photo used under Creative Commons from Veganbaking.net
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Story
    • Our Board
    • Our Team
  • Services
    • Medical >
      • WWC CPED
    • Dental
    • Pharmacy
    • Behavioral Health >
      • BH Tips
      • Native Connections
    • Health and Wellness >
      • Spirit Within Project
      • Coach's Corner
      • Nutrition Nook >
        • Nutrition Resources
    • Health Insurance
  • Community
    • Partners
    • Resources
    • Research
    • Calendar
  • News
  • Contact Us
    • New Patients
    • Volunteer
    • Give
    • Employment
  • Patient Portal