The UCHealth Falcon Medical Center offers urgent care and primary care ó both under one roof.However, that is going to change.”We’ve outgrown this space,” said Dr. Cory Dietz, who is board certified in family medicine and works on the primary side. This year, primary care will find a new home in Falcon while the urgent care side, which just added a full X-ray room, stays put, he said.”We’re bursting at the seams,” Dietz said.A new location for primary care hasn’t been determined, but Dietz said he hopes it’s nearby.Dietz has been with the office since it opened in February 2017. And he has been with UCHealth for a year longer than that, helping out in other offices while the Falcon center was being built.Dietz, born and raised in Iowa, is a graduate of the University of Iowa College of Medicine in Iowa City. He worked in both group and solo practices, mostly in the Dubuque area, before coming to Colorado.He and his wife had been looking at Colorado as their retirement destination. But when the last of their children flew the coop and they were empty nesters, they decided not to wait to make the move.They have a home in the Banning Lewis development, a 10-minute commute for Dietz; his wife works in medical records for a Colorado Springs orthopedic practice. He said they love it here, although he is still getting used to the unpredictable weather, Dietz said.When he researched Colorado Springs, he found the average temperature and snowfall were similar to that of Dubuque. In Dubuque, though, once the snow starts to fall you can expect that it wonít melt until spring, he said.Dietz brought with him from Iowa a passion for skiing. It might be a surprise to Coloradans, but there is skiing in Iowa, including Sundown Mountain Resort in Dubuque, where Dietz was on ski patrol for several years. In the off season, you’ll find him hiking or riding his motorcycle. And, yes, he wears a helmet while on his motorcycle ó “motorcycling, skiing, bicycling, it’s always a good idea,” he said of the protection a helmet provides.He is aided in his practice by a nurse practitioner who works two days a week. UCHealth started the Falcon center because it saw a need in the area, and the booming business is evidence of that, Dietz said. The majority of patients come from the Falcon area ó as little as a five-or-10-minute drive away ó but some come from the more distant rural areas out east.A family practice covers everyone from newborns to geriatrics, he said. “We do a little bit of everything. Ö The biggest kick I get out of family medicine is being able to take care of multiple family members,” Dietz said. He has a couple of families where he treats three generations.His philosophy of medicine “is to treat the whole person,î he said. ìThat’s what family medicine is.” But Dietz said when a certain expertise is needed, one advantage of being part of the UCHealth system is that he has “a lot of specialty partners that I can just pick up the phone and call.”Dietz has a keen interest in food as both nutrition and medicine.”My wife and I have been vegetarians for about eight or nine years and total vegans for about seven years. I’m very passionate about using what you eat to improve your health. … I especially get excited when I have, say, someone who has high cholesterol and they donít want to be on medicine,” he said, because the proper diet could be the answer.His profession is an ever evolving one, Dietz said.”Medicine in general is always changing; thereís always new information. If you go into medicine, you have to be a lifelong learner, I constantly read every chance I get.î
