The Colorado Sun | On the rural Colorado plains, cancer patients with no local options rely on this traveling oncologist
Dr. Robert Hoyer doesn’t bother buying groceries or using the kitchenette in the little room at the Holiday Inn Express where he lives for four days every month… They’ve settled into a routine by now in this small town on the southeastern Colorado plains, where they travel once a month to see patients with cancer who otherwise would have to drive two hours to Pueblo or three hours to Colorado Springs for doctor appointments. Medical assistant Creston Potts’ mom takes care of her cat, Purdy, while she’s taking care of patients on the road, away from her regular job at UCHealth Memorial Central in Colorado Springs. She’s been working with Hoyer for 10 years now…On their travel week, the UCHealth team leaves Colorado Springs about dawn on Mondays, driving two hours straight south to Las Animas County, where they visit patients in borrowed space at Mt. San Rafael Hospital in Trinidad. On Tuesday mornings, they drive northeast to Lamar, where they use an empty suite of rooms at Prowers Medical Center. They head home to Colorado Springs around noon on Fridays… In five days, Hoyer’s team sees about 130 patients, some to explain their diagnosis for the first time, and others to discuss test results or the next round of chemotherapy. There is not a single oncologist based in the southeastern quadrant of the state.