Village Medical has closed its obstetrics practice in Colorado and will no longer provide medical care for women during pregnancy or childbirth at its Fort Collins offices.

The national health care provider confirmed the closure in a statement to the Coloradoan on Monday, noting the decision was made to “streamline” its services and “prioritize primary care.” Patients will be contacted directly about the change, according to Village Medical spokesperson Molly Lynch.

When asked whether Village Medical doctors were fired as part of this change, the company said, “we do not discuss the termination of employees.”

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“However we want to make it clear that we did not let go of all our OB doctors — there are many who remain on staff and will serve our patients though high-quality primary care,” the company continued in its statement. None of these physicians will provide obstetrics care, Lynch clarified.

Village Medical has been in Northern Colorado since 2022, when it purchased Associates in Family Medicine — one of the largest primary care health practices in Northern Colorado. Obstetrics “had been a cornerstone” of the practice since Associates in Family Medicine was founded in 1962, according to Village Medical.

Colorado was the only market where Village Medical offered obstetrics care, Lynch said.

Former Coloradoan reporter Pat Ferrier contributed to this report.

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A black bear with three cubs attacked a man in his Colorado home after they crashed in through a sliding glass door and he was unable to get them to leave, the AP reports. State wildlife managers killed all four bears after the attack Thursday night in Lake City, a southwestern Colorado town of 400 people. The man’s injuries were significant, but he didn’t need to go to a hospital, Colorado Parks & Wildlife said in a statement Saturday. “It’s certainly lucky we didn’t have a fatality because it was close,” Colorado wildlife officer Lucas Martin said in the statement.

The 74-year-old man tried to shoo the adult female bear out with a kitchen chair, but it knocked him into a wall and clawed at him, the wildlife agency said. The bear injured the man’s head, neck, arms, shoulder, abdomen, and calf before he and his wife escaped to a bedroom. A sheriff’s deputy chased the bears out, and medical responders treated the man at his house. His identity wasn’t released. Wildlife managers suspect the bears were accustomed to people because of recent reports of bears in the area raiding homes in search of food.

They found the four bears near the couple’s house and killed them, standard practice to stop problem bears that associate people with food. “It creates a very complex situation to mitigate,” Martin said. “Unfortunately cub bears that are taught these behaviors by their mother may result in generations of conflict between bears and people.” It was Colorado’s first reported bear attack this year. There were six in 2023. (More Colorado stories.)

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