Mountain Family’s roots date to 1978 in Black Hawk, Colorado, when the area’s only physician retired. Citizens formed the Gilpin County Health Clinic, later becoming Columbine Family Health Centers, with clinics in Black Hawk and Nederland.

Columbine’s success was noted by towns west of the Continental Divide who saw their own medical resources dwindling in the 1990s, when the area’s only pediatric practice willing to accept Medicaid suddenly closed its doors. Asked to open a clinic in Glenwood Springs, Columbine agreed despite the challenges of distance and weather, honoring its mission of ensuring health care for Colorado’s underserved.

As it expanded, Columbine became Mountain Family Health Centers, opening clinics in Rifle and Basalt in 2011 and Edwards in 2014. In the same year, the decision was reluctantly made to close the last remaining clinic on the Front Range due to the decreasing need due to the area’s changing demographics and establishment of new providers. During this time period Mountain Family also began providing dental and behavioral health services to fully integrate the provision of health care.

Continuing the expansion, Mountain Family opened its first school-based health center in 2016 in Avon. In 2017, a mobile dental van and three SMILES Dental Project tele-dentistry programs were added to further increase access to dental care.

Today, Mountain Family Health Centers is a Federally Qualified Health Center system serving more than 21,000 patients across the West Mountain region of Garfield, Eagle, Pitkin and Rio Blanco Counties. Mountain Family clinics are certified by the National Committee on Quality Assurance as Level III Patient-Centered Medical Homes. We are steadily enlarging our clinics and expanding access to high quality, fully integrated medical, behavioral dental health care services.

Mountain Family Health Centers looks forward to the next forty years of Our Family Caring For Yours.