Throughout his career at the University of Colorado Department of Medicine and Denver Health, internal medicine physician Jeremy Long, MD, MPH, has made a name for himself as a leader who’s unafraid to tackle complicated issues — like improving care for patients who have been repeatedly hospitalized and navigating how to approach medical aid in dying.
As he has worked to improve the health care system, Long’s priority remains on his patients and providing them the best care possible. It is because of his dedication that Long was one of 21 faculty members in the CU Department of Medicine who were inducted into the department’s Clinical Excellence Society.
“It meant a lot to me, because I think of myself as a healer,” says Long, an associate professor in the CU Division of General Internal Medicine. “The Clinical Excellence Society includes people I have helped train and people who have trained me. They’re such good role models, and it’s a blessing to be a part of it.”
Long — a primary care physician who serves as the medical director of the Comprehensive Care Center at Denver Health, which treats patients with high health needs who have been repeatedly hospitalized — is admired by both his patients and colleagues. As one patient wrote in a handwritten note: “I think you are the best doctor I have ever had, and wanted to let you know that I always appreciate you taking such good care of me.”
In a letter nominating Long to the Clinical Excellence Society, Simon Hambidge, MD, PhD, chief ambulatory care officer at Denver Health and chief executive officer of Denver Community Health Services, said he would want Long as his doctor.
“Beyond all his accomplishments and recognitions, Jeremy is the doctor patients want to see, and the colleague that other physicians want to see as a patient, consult as a colleague, and work for as a leader. He is the best of the best,” Hambidge wrote.
Becoming a primary care physician
The son of a kidney doctor, Long was introduced to the medical world at an early age, and he soon began to learn about the many socio-economic factors that can contribute to a person’s health.
When he finished attending college at Duke University, Long sought out public health training to help him understand the social determinants of health (the non-medical factors that influence health outcomes, such as a person’s education, housing, income, and working life conditions) and community-based participation in terms of research and clinic development. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, earning his Master of Public Health degree, and then attended the Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
“It really opened my eyes,” he says. “I think that’s what really put me on a fast track to primary care and my future work of trying to engage medical students in similar work — being willing to think about these issues and how we can develop better care for patients.”
Long’s approach to patient care is rooted in his time traveling in rural North Carolina as part of work he did with AmeriCorps VISTA. It was how he met his wife, who is also a physician and pediatrician at Denver Health, as they knocked on the doors of people who had been identified as not having indoor plumbing nor connections to sewers. They acted as a resource to communities and helped complete paperwork that would eventually lead to grants to help put in water lines and sewer lines.
“It was a very intense exposure to the ravages of poverty,” Long says. “That experience made me really cognizant of the spectrum of privilege.”
He decided that when he treats patients, he wants it to be relational rather than transactional — meaning that he is not just a physician there to do a particular task, but he is also there to build a connection with his patients to help them feel supported and understood as they navigate their health journey.
He began implementing this approach as a medical resident at CU. Following his residency, Long remained at CU as a faculty member and became an internal medicine physician at Denver Health, where he has been working since 2006.
“The minute my wife and I had our first rotation at Denver Health, I think both of us knew that this was a place where we can always feel great about coming in every day and doing our best to ameliorate social injustice,” he says. “Almost 20 years later, we’re still doing it, and we still love our jobs. Both at Denver Health and in the CU Department of Medicine, it’s amazing.”
From left to right: Jeremy Long, MD, MPH, Ronald Colson, MD, and Jeanie Youngwerth, MD, smile at the CU Department of Medicine’s induction ceremony for its Clinical Excellence Society.
Founding the Comprehensive Care Center
Establishing Denver Health’s Comprehensive Care Center took roughly 11 years, with the purpose of creating a specialized clinic that could better serve patients who have been repeatedly hospitalized and face high health needs, such as heart failure, asthma, respiratory infections, or skin infections.
Denver Health already had several different clinical programs to help these patients, and under the care center, these programs were brought together. These include Denver Health’s intensive outpatient clinic, wound care clinic, a clinic to help patients transition out of the hospital, and Denver Health’s home monitoring program.
“We were trying to optimize and refine the way that patients are transitioned out of the emergency department and out of the hospital,” says Long, who previously served as the medical director of the intensive outpatient clinic and was a founding faculty member of the hospital transitions clinic.
The Comprehensive Care Center, which officially launched in 2023, provides patients with a team of health care professionals who can help guide them through their treatment process after they leave the hospital — such as by having nurses call the patients to check in on them after they return home, or by giving patients a number they can call to speak with a health care professional at any time.
“With some of our recent innovations, we’ve been able to reach out to thousands of patients every year, which is very fulfilling. It helps us treat patients with very severe medical conditions and give them great care,” Long says. “Alongside that, we’re using other approaches for patients who are earlier in their disease progression to help address their health issues sooner and prevent conditions from worsening.”
One of the most gratifying aspects of leading the clinic has been the positive feedback from patients and health care professionals alike, he explains.
“A lot of patients who wind up under my care have been in lots of health care and social care situations where it was hard for them to get the care that they needed, and they often came away with negative experiences,” Long says. “Patients have said about the clinic that they’ve never had such a good experience in health care and never had someone in health care listen so much. That kind of feedback is fuel for me to want to do more and more.”
Navigating medical aid in dying
In 2016, Colorado voters approved access to medical aid in dying — meaning a person who is terminally ill with a prognosis of six months or less to live may request and self-administer medical aid-in-dying medication to voluntarily end their life. Following the passage of the law, Long volunteered to give his perspective on medical aid in dying when Denver Health did an inquiry into how health care professionals felt.
“I wanted to give my perspective as someone who spent years working with people who were often at the end of their life because their vital organs weren't working,” he says. “I got more and more involved, and I realized we could do something great.”
Long became a founding member of Denver Health’s Medical Aid in Dying Clinic, and he later became the clinic’s medical director from 2018 to 2020. Now, he serves as a consultant for the clinic, which serves about 10 new patients a week.
Establishing the clinic was also personal to Long, whose mother passed away while he was in medical school.
“I watched my mother really just disintegrate away from cancer. I thought about — would she have wanted something like that?” he says of medical aid in dying. “To give patients in the final stages of life some control over their situation, it was pretty meaningful. I’ve never prescribed the medicine or attended a death and not been impacted to my inner core by what it means to be a person involved in that process. Because someone has essentially said, ‘I’m willing to let you in and help me through this very final phase.’”
Leading with kindness
As a leader, mentor, and primary care physician, Long says his most important values are to lead with kindness, with open ears, and to practice active listening.
“I have an incredibly diverse panel of patients, including a few dozen physicians, nurses, and staff members at Denver Health who come see me. As well, many of my other patients are really on the verge of a health crisis,” he says, explaining some of his patients deal with issues such as homelessness or addiction to substances. “From the moment that they’re with me, I’m going to devote my attention, expertise, and training to do anything I can to help; and if I’m not the person, I’ll connect them to someone who can do it better.”
When he meets with his patients, Long not only leads with kindness and an open mind; he also embraces his humanity.
“Human connection and teamwork are absolutely vital ingredients for me,” he says. “I am aware that there are people who think that professionalism means setting aside their humanity and just bringing their expertise. For me, they’re so interwoven that I can’t imagine practicing without my humanity being one of those leading forces.”
Long’s advice to aspiring and early-career doctors is to listen to their inner voice, seek out mentors, and adopt a growth mindset.
“Recognize that you can’t know everything, and there will always be someone who can teach you something. That has been an integral part of being a clinician, and patients are often my best teachers,” he says. “Keep your moral compass pointed at true north, which for me, means helping people feel better about their existence so they may also live better and hopefully longer.”
