Home care after a hospital stay in Evergreen, CO: the first weeks up the canyon

Know the building before you drive up to it

St. Anthony Hospital at 11600 W 2nd Place in Lakewood (720-321-0000) is a CommonSpirit Health facility and a Level I Trauma Center with 237 licensed beds and emergency care at any hour. One practical detail families learn the hard way: the main lobby closes at 9 PM, and after that visitors enter through the emergency department walk-in entrance. If discharge is a late-day affair, know which door you are meeting at.

Lutheran Hospital at 12911 W 40th Avenue in Wheat Ridge (303-425-4500), part of Intermountain Health, lists emergency services on site with visiting hours of 7 AM to 9 PM. These are listed as locations only; which facility a given discharge comes through is between the family and the medical team.

Two questions are worth asking before discharge day arrives, while there is still someone to ask: what exactly is the medication list, and when is the follow-up appointment? A discharge packet read once, in a loud room, at five in the evening, is a packet that gets misread at home. Ask for the paper list, ask what each new medication replaced, and write the follow-up date on the front of the folder. The caregiver who arrives that first week can then work from the same page the family is working from.

The drive, in real terms

Evergreen sits 19 miles west of Denver at 7,162 feet, and the Evergreen Area Chamber puts the drive at about 30 minutes from Denver, via Interstate 70 exit 252. State Highway 74 runs south from I-70 through Bergen Park and northern Evergreen to downtown, then follows Bear Creek Canyon toward SH-8 near Red Rocks; County Highway 73 runs south to US Highway 285 at Conifer. In good weather that is a routine trip. In a storm, or after dark, with a person who is tired from three days in a hospital, it is a trip worth doing once and then keeping the support local.

A non-medical caregiver's scope on discharge day is concrete: meet the person at the door, get them settled, start the medication reminder routine the discharge papers describe, put the paperwork somewhere everyone in the house can find it, and run the errands so nobody has to put a freshly discharged person in the car for toilet paper.

The first groceries, without the trip

Natural Grocers at 1291 Bergen Parkway (303-679-9800) offers online ordering with home delivery, and its Evergreen store page notes it serves Evergreen, Kittredge, Genesee, Indian Hills, Morrison and Golden. The Walmart Supercenter at 952 Swede Gulch Road (303-526-1649) is the big-basket option on the west side of town. Check current hours for either before you plan around them.

For the week nobody wants to drive, the Evergreen Library at 5000 County Road 73 (303-235-5275) offers curbside pickup daily from 9 AM to 5 PM (noon to 5 PM Sunday) through the Jefferson County Public Library system. It is a small thing, but a box of books at the curb is one fewer trip and one easier afternoon for a person who is recovering and bored, which is its own kind of medical risk.

Recovery boredom is worth taking seriously at the start, not as an afterthought. A person home from three days in a building with a schedule suddenly has fourteen unscheduled hours a day, and the first week of that is often harder than the hospital week. Meals arriving, a library box at the curb, and a caregiver who knows the television remote and the coffee pot turn the first week from a waiting room into a house.

Follow-up care closer than Denver

Evergreen Family & Internal Medicine at Arapahoe Peak is at 32135 Castle Court, Suite 101 (1-720-774-6214), with listed hours Monday through Friday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM and closed weekends; call to confirm current hours. An Arapahoe Peak Health Center listing also appears at 28000 Meadow Drive, Unit 210 (303-679-8500). Both are in town, which matters when the discharge instructions say a follow-up visit is needed within a week and the alternative is a rush hour on I-70.

Medication timing is the other local question. The discharge packet will name a pharmacy and a schedule; a caregiver can keep the reminder routine, watch for the refills, and flag to the family when something looks off, but questions about the medications themselves go to the doctor or the pharmacist, not to non-medical home care.

The first follow-up appointment usually lands within a week or two of discharge, and that is the appointment where questions accumulated at home get answered. Write them down as they happen: the swelling, the sleep, the one thing that seemed off on Tuesday. A caregiver can drive the person to that visit, take notes, and bring the list back into the house, which is a non-medical task and exactly the kind of three-hour block the minimum is built for.

Food for the week nobody is cooking

Volunteers of America's Meals on Wheels serves Jefferson County, with eligibility starting at age 60; to apply, call 303-294-0111 or email [email protected]. Routes run Monday through Saturday, there is no charge, recipients are asked to contribute what they can afford, and no one is denied service for an inability to contribute. For the first stretch home, a delivered lunch is one meal the household does not have to solve.

A paid caregiver fills the rest of the plate: breakfast, a proper dinner, the groceries, and the tea at the hour the person actually wants it. That is the difference between getting through the week and running the week.

The next appointment

If driving is off the table for a while, RTD's Route EV runs weekday peak service between the Evergreen Park-n-Ride and downtown Denver's Civic Center Station, with morning eastbound trips listed at 5:40, 6:40 and 7:40 AM; check the current schedule before counting on a specific run. For eligible riders, RTD Access-a-Ride takes reservations one to seven days in advance at 303-299-2960, with no same-day trips.

The simplest arrangement, for the appointments that matter most in month one, is the caregiver driving: they know the discharge paperwork, they know the person, and they can take notes. That is a non-medical task, and it is exactly what the three-hour minimum is built for, and it keeps the newly home person out of the passenger seat of a canyon drive they are not ready for yet.

Local resources in Evergreen

• St. Anthony Hospital (CommonSpirit Health) is at 11600 W 2nd Pl, Lakewood, CO 80228, phone 720-321-0000; it is a Level I Trauma Center with 237 licensed beds and round-the-clock emergency care; after the main lobby closes at 9 PM, visitors enter through the emergency department walk-in entrance. Source
• Lutheran Hospital (Intermountain Health) is at 12911 W 40th Ave, Wheat Ridge, CO, phone 303-425-4500; the page lists emergency services on site, open around the clock with visiting hours 7 AM-9 PM. Source
• Evergreen is an unincorporated census-designated place in western Jefferson County, 19 miles west of Denver, at an elevation of 7,162 feet; its 2020 census population was 9,307. Source
• State Highway 74 runs south from I-70 through Bergen Park and northern Evergreen to downtown Evergreen, then follows Bear Creek Canyon toward SH-8 near Red Rocks Park; County Highway 73 runs south to US Highway 285 at Conifer; I-70 exit 252 is the main Denver approach. Source
• The Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce states Evergreen is 'only 30 minutes from Denver' and about 15 minutes up the canyon from Red Rocks via I-70 exit 252 (chamber's own drive-time claims; traffic varies). Source
• Natural Grocers is at 1291 Bergen Pkwy, Evergreen, CO 80439, phone (303) 679-9800; the store offers online ordering with home delivery and the page states the store serves Evergreen, Kittredge, Genesee, Indian Hills, Morrison and Golden. Source
• A Walmart Supercenter (store 2293) is listed at 952 Swede Gulch Rd, Evergreen, CO 80439, phone 303-526-1649. Source
• The Evergreen Library (Jefferson County Public Library) is at 5000 County Road 73, Evergreen, CO 80439, phone (303) 235-5275, with curbside pickup daily 9 AM-5 PM (noon-5 PM Sunday). Source
• Evergreen Family & Internal Medicine at Arapahoe Peak is at 32135 Castle Ct Ste 101, Evergreen, CO 80439, phone 1-720-774-6214, listed hours Mon-Fri 8:00 AM-5:00 PM, closed weekends. Source
• An Arapahoe Peak Health Center is separately listed at 28000 Meadow Dr. Unit 210, Evergreen, CO 80439-2116, phone 303-679-8500. Source
• Volunteers of America's Meals on Wheels serves Jefferson County; eligibility starts at age 60; to apply call 303-294-0111 or email [email protected]; routes run Monday-Saturday; there is no charge, recipients are asked to contribute what they can afford, and no one is denied service for inability to contribute. Source
• RTD Route EV (Evergreen/Denver) runs weekday peak service between the Evergreen Park-n-Ride and downtown Denver's Civic Center Station; eastbound trips from the Evergreen Park-n-Ride are listed at 5:40, 6:40 and 7:40 AM. Source

More resources for Evergreen families

• Dementia Care at Home in Evergreen, CO
• Respite Care for Family Caregivers in Evergreen, CO
• How to Choose a Home Care Agency in Evergreen, CO
• Paying for Home Care in Evergreen, CO