Salud Family Health in Estes Park is proud to have Tim Nagel, MD, in our Estes Valley family.
Dr. Nagel is a board-certified family physician. He attended medical school at the University of Iowa and completed his residency in family practice, also at the University of Iowa.
Dr. Nagel spent much of his career (29 years) providing the full spectrum of family medicine, including obstetrics, pediatrics, geriatrics, emergency medicine, and hospital care, in small town Iowa.
Dr. Nagel relocated to Colorado in 2016 and for the last 8 years, has practiced part time in Colorado and part-time in Iowa.
The following is an interview I conducted with Dr. Nagel in June.
Why did you choose to join Salud in Estes Park?
“I met Dr. Hannah Fields through my wife’s connections at the winery. When it came time for her [Dr. Fields] to move on from Salud, she suggested the opening for a primary care physician to me. I decided I wanted to do that, if they would be open to me working for them part time.
I have done mission trips [Guatemala, Haiti, and the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh] and felt a calling to work for Salud. I was excited when the opportunity came up. I am very impressed by Salud’s Mission to provide care to those most in need. It is why I went into medicine in the first place and another reason I chose to practice in rural Iowa and still do, to this day.”
So, tell me a bit about yourself. I understand you have a large family.
“I am married and my wife, Denise and I, are the proud parents of nine children.”
Wow! That’s a good-sized family. Tell me about them.
“Their ages range from 43 to 21, five of whom are married. We also have nine grandchildren. They are spread out all over the place; two in Colorado, two in Iowa, one in Florida, one in Minnesota, two in Washington and one in Germany.”
With everything you have going on professionally and with family, do you have any free time?
“Denise and I love to be outdoors hiking and traveling to see our family. My dad, who turns 93 in July, still lives in Iowa and I travel back there every month to work so I make sure to spend time with him every time I go home.”
Do you practice part time in IA? What do you do there?
“I work in the emergency room in a hospital in a very small town, Pocahontas, once every month. Typically, I work a four-day shift. My Dad lives there and if I have enough time, I try to see my two kids that live in Iowa.”
At Salud, you see patients on the entire spectrum, including uninsured, sliding scale, those with private insurance as well as Medicaid and Medicare. Do patients have similar health needs?
“I think they have the same self-needs (diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol) but because of the historical difficulty in affordable health care, particularly in rural areas, the common illnesses are less managed until they actually have an emergency.”
Do you see a difference in frequency of visits with insured vs uninsured?
“Yes. Insured patients are encouraged by their insurance companies to see their doctor yearly. With uninsured patients, [the lack of finances leads to] “It’s just going to cost me to go in.”
Do you see the same needs/type of patients here at Salud as you did when in private practice in Iowa?
“Yes. Similar health problems wherever I see patients. Affordable health care is a problem no matter where you live, especially in rural areas.”
What do you like most about working at Salud here in Estes?
“What I like most is the patients. They are very grateful for the help they are receiving. They are genuinely grateful for the care they get.”
How many days a week are you at Salud?
“Because of my going back to Iowa and also being in the Army Reserve for the last four years, my schedule varies from one to three days every week.”
You are in the Army Reserves? When did you join? What do you do in Army Reserve?
“Currently, I am showing up one weekend a month for training. Because of COVID, I was not able to get into additional training classes. Right now, I have long weekends of training at Fort Carson or Aurora.
My current training is keeping me up to date on army type skills, including medical, firearm training, radio/communication training, map and compass training.
I was commissioned in April 2020 in the Army Reserve. I am contracted until 2028, then transitioning to IRR status this August and will be on IRR (Individual Ready Reserve) for four years.
Because of my age, I probably would not be put in the middle of a war zone but would serve in an army-based hospital as a replacement for the doctors heading to war zones.”
Why did you join?
“I felt the calling to serve—my dad and his four brothers all served in the military. Two were in Europe in WWII. The time seemed right with all the kids grown and gone.
I wanted to give back a little bit. There was never a good time to do it with nine kids growing up and my practice in Iowa where I was employed by a small hospital there.”
Tell me about the patients you see at Salud. Is it all ages? Is it only uninsured? What is the makeup of clients?
“We see a fair number of children at Salud. One thing we do not see as much here is the elderly.
I think a misconception is that Salud is only for the uninsured or Medicaid patients. Salud is for everyone. We accept Medicare which I think the larger population is not aware of. We accept private insurance. We accept uninsured, Medicaid and provide sliding scale for services.
We can provide the full range of family medicine just as Timberline or the Hospital does. I want people in the community to know that we have the same services, and more, under one roof, including dental and mental health facilities.
We are not exclusively serving the uninsured or underinsured. We are here to serve everyone who needs quality health care services.”
Dr. Nagel, I know you have a patient waiting. Thank you for your time and welcome to Salud in Estes Park!
Donations to the Estes Park Salud Foundation support our community’s health and well-being. Salud provides quality, affordable primary health care services and accepts Medicaid, Medicare, CHP+, and most private insurance plans.
We serve all members of the community regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. For more information, please visit saludclinic.org or call (970) 484-0999.