Southeast Colorado Hospital District

09/23/2025

SOUTHEAST COLORADO HOSPITAL DISTRICT: EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- Coming soon! “Go Live” anticipated week of September 29th, 2025!
Southeast Colorado Hospital District Now Offers Avel eCare Emergency Services
New telemedicine services will support staff, improve patient outcomes, and expand access to care
Springfield citizens and surrounding area – Open 24/7, the Southeast Colorado Hospital District’s ER is equipped to handle any patient that comes through the door. However, access to a second set of eyes and ears can be beneficial in critical cases. This is why SECHD has entered into a partnership with Avel eCare--a telemedicine provider that supports hospitals around the country--to receive virtual Emergency services when needed in conjunction with our on-site medical provider.
At the push of a button, our local providers and emergency room staff now have immediate, virtual access to Avel’s team of board-licensed physicians and expert nurses who specialize in emergency medicine. This will positively impact patient care in a variety of ways, including:
• Consistent Coverage: Access to board-certified emergency physicians 24 hours a day
• Access: Connects rural communities to highly trained specialists
• Timeliness: Activation of emergency transport teams as early as possible
• Second Set of Hands: Additional support during multiple emergencies
• Keep Care Local: Fewer transfers so patients can stay close to home
• Partner in Care: Collaborative approach allows local caregivers to focus exclusively on patient care

“SECH is deeply committed to ensuring members of our local community receive the best care and attention possible. We have a trusted medical team here in Springfield who offer excellent care, and our goal is to make sure these individuals have the right resources, support, and tools at their disposal to continue their great work – a goal that is met by partnering with Avel eCare,” said Heather Burdick, Chief Nursing Officer at SECH.
Since it was first founded in 1993 to provide expanded specialty care access to rural areas, Avel eCare has developed one of the most robust telemedicine networks in the United States. Its team of doctors, nurses, clinicians, and other medical professionals are all deeply committed to their mission of delivering high quality care to patients when and where it is needed and currently serve more than 1,000 facilities across 45 states. In all, Avel has helped local care teams treat millions of patients.
“We look forward to partnering with staff at SECH to assist in delivering unmatched telemedicine services 24/7/365. Avel eCare couples sophisticated technology with a spirit of collaboration and partnership – all with the goal of improving access to quality health care,” said Doug Duskin, CEO of Avel eCare.
To learn more about healthcare services at SECH visit Southeast Colorado Hospital District @ www.sechosp.org. To learn more about Avel eCare, visit AVELearn - Avel eCare @ www.avelecare.com

Avel eCare telemedicine supports clinicians with a team of experts ready 24/7/365. We help bring advanced medicine to your community.

09/22/2025

Southeast Colorado Hospital District is rolling out a new partnership with eCare to expand access to virtual emergency health services! Avel is a telemedicine provider specializing in delivering clinician-to-clinician support when and where it is needed. Now, our team will have 24/7 access to a team of board-certified physicians and emergency nurses who can provide assistance (DOES NOT REPLACE qualified on-site provider) during critical situations and serve as a second pair of eyes. We are excited to roll out this new service and encourage you to help us to welcome Avel to the Southeast Colorado Hospital Emergency Department team! “Go Live” is anticipated the week of September 29th 2025!

Learn more: https://www.avelecare.com/services/emergency/

Follow Avel for real-time news and updates:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/avel-ecare/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AveleCare/
X: https://x.com/Avel_eCare

A national leader in providing telemedicine care. Avel’s experts collaborating with local clinicians, to deliver high quality care when and where it’s needed.

09/18/2025

06/20/2025

REGISTRATION DESK HOURS:

Main entrance (10th Street) open: 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday – Friday

North entrance (near the clinic) ER Registration: 24/7

05/09/2025

2025
If you ask GOOGLE to define a rural nurse the answer is along the lines of: Rural RNs have less nursing education, are less likely to work in hospitals, and are more likely to work full-time and in public/community health than urban RNs. At first, reading Googles definition of a rural nurse left me a bit irritated, left me with a bad taste in my mouth and confirmed that one simply cannot trust everything all mighty Google tells us!
Fun fact; of the 14 fulltime and 2 PRN Registered Nurses and that make up the core nursing staff at SECH, 7 have their Bachelor’s in Nursing with another obtaining hers by end of summer and 1 has a Master’s degree in Nursing and 2 others are actively working on their Master’s degree. The rest of the RN’s without the “advanced” education have an average of 15 year’s experience. I think Google had better reevaluate the roles of a rural nurse. Little does Google know but us rural Baca County nurses with “less education” are actually “ROCKSTARS” who wear many hats throughout the day depending on what or who decides to walk, run or roll through the doors.
We can go from leisurely convincing the most stubborn patient that it is important to get up and walk after recovering from a surgery or acute illness that has knocked their stamina down in the dumps one minute to the very next minute setting up the crash cart, obtaining IV access to give lifesaving medications while the rest of our team drops whatever we are doing and jumps into action setting up for chest tubes, getting and maintaining an airway, doing chest compressions, hanging the blood, getting to/from imaging, calling for flight, backup help and anything else that is needed. Us nurses like to call this “organized chaos” in the moment. If you ask us, we all have a different word or term we call these “moments,” some are more colorful with our words than others. Truth be told us Baca County nurses have an advantage over them city nurses, who often only work in a certain “field” of nursing, usually of their liking/choosing to leave the other areas untouched and unknown unless it’s a choice to venture into another field. In the city you have many choices of specialty areas such as Cardiac nurses, Oncology nurses, Rehab nurses, Skilled Nursing nurses, Pediatric nurses, ICU nurses, Surgery nurses, Aesthetic nurses, Infusion nurses.... you get the picture! We don’t get that option down here in rural America. In other words, if you want to hang with us, you better be willing to flip your role to a Cardiac Nurse when the chest pain walks in, then in the next room switch over to a Pediatric Nurse when a 1-year-old is brought in with 103 fever, no tears, barky cough and low oxygen. After another hour rolls by you hopefully have the child and heart patient stabilized because the ambulance is bringing in several victims from a car crash and you just entered the role of a Trauma Nurse. I could go on and on with the different roles we enter day in and out.
We wear many hats in rural America and while Google will tell you that Rural RN’s have less education, I’d argue and say us rural nurses are much more well-rounded and moldable into whatever situational nurse you need us to be, we have to know it all or at least be willing to learn it all. Rural Nurses are a “specialty” and NOT for the weak! At the end of the day, we also have each other’s backs, what is a weak area for one is a strong area for another and vice versa so we complement each other well creating an awesome team! Rural Nursing isn’t for everyone and that’s ok.
Many of us not only wear multiple hats inside the facility but also outside the facility. Many of us have livestock we help with, side businesses and other hobbies that we actively participate in on our own or alongside our spouses, most of us have children young and grown or grandchildren to help raise up while bouncing from one extracurricular activity to the next. We are coaches and mentors. We are part of what makes our small rural community special. Our patients are also our neighbors, church pastors, past teachers, friends of our children, moms and dads. We are all connected by something or someone and often related somehow by either marriage or down the gene pool.
When we take care of our patients we put our whole heart into it, when the urgency of the situation subsides, we can be seen silently grieving when things don’t go the way we wished or hoped for. Other times are happy and a cause for celebration when we get to send our patients home, assist them in doing better and working towards goals to better their quality of life. Being part of a greater cause to help our patients is why we all went into this profession. After some rough roller coaster rides together, I can confidently say Baca County nurses are the best! Happy Nurses Week 2025 to all my fellow nurses, you make the ride worth it! I am blessed and it is a privilege to work with and along side you!
With love and gratitude, Heather Burdick BSN, RN, CNO