Getting your blood checked can mean making an appointment, getting to a doctor’s office, and fees. But for older folks in Pitkin County, regular senior health fairs make it much easier. They’re part of a wider variety of fairs put on by Aspen Valley Hospital, which hosted one on a recent Friday.
It’s standing room only in the hospital lobby, with volunteers and staff quick to greet the steady stream of seniors coming in the door. Marty Ames introduces herself; she's Pitkin County's Senior Services Director and helped put together Pitkin County’s new plan on helping its aging population. Today, Ames one of many keeping an eye on who’s next in line and making sure everything is running smoothly.
“There are people, everywhere," she says. "We are working our way through the alphabet. We give people their consent forms in alphabetical order, so we’ll have ten A’s, ten B’s, ten C’s. And I think we’re up to about P Right now. But the room is still full.”
Ames says the line extends into the downstairs as people wait to have their blood drawn. Her office is partnering with Aspen Valley Hospital to put on the fair, along with the nonprofit, Community Health Services.
“... and a whole lot of volunteers. Volunteer health providers, for vision and knee exams-- which is pretty popular in our age group! And skin screening…”
More than three hundred end up getting some or all of those things done today. Ames beams, "and it’s so social. Honestly people don’t seem to mind waiting for a while because they run into friends that they maybe haven’t seen for years. They live in different parts of the Valley now, and maybe they’re not out working, and they’re not running into people as much as they would otherwise.”
Linda Harlan is appreciating the people part of this event. She’s been to these fairs before-- she thinks for the last four years. Harlan’s lived in Aspen for nearly fifty years. She’s waiting on one of the more popular tests… and this fair will be the first time she and others will have their results automatically uploaded to a health records database. Then Harlan can ask her doctor to import that info. That’s in addition to a paper copy of the results.
There ends up being a record turnout for this fair. And it’s possible events like this could become even more popular in the coming years. Ames describes the lay of the demographic land. “The over sixty population in Pitkin County is the fastest growing segment of the population.”
Folks have lived here for decades… or who have moved to the valley to retire.