At a glance

The clinic is at a single location in Wheat Ridge; surgery is performed at Intermountain Health hospitals in the Denver area.

Sending records before your first visit is the best way to avoid an extra trip.

Tests involving sedation require a driver, and you may want to stay locally that night.

Ask your local clinicians to stay involved — coordinated care is easier with a shared plan.

Where you’ll be seen

Clinic visits take place at the Lutheran Clinic – Weight Loss & Reflux Center, 12905 W. 40th Ave., Suite 405, in Wheat Ridge. Dr. Speer’s hospital affiliations are Lutheran Hospital in Wheat Ridge and Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver. Your care team will confirm where any testing or surgery will take place. Full contact details are on the appointments page.

Before your first visit

Ask your local clinician to send a referral and records. See the records checklist.
Gather imaging with the actual images, not only the report — for CT scans and barium studies especially.
Collect operative reports if you’ve had any prior esophageal, stomach, hernia, or weight-loss surgery.
Write down a short symptom timeline, your medications, and your questions.

Planning the trip

Ask about grouping appointments. When testing is needed, it’s reasonable to ask whether it can be scheduled close to your visit.
Plan for sedation. Endoscopy and Bravo capsule placement usually involve sedation, so you’ll need someone to drive you. Many people from farther away prefer to stay nearby that night.
Allow for mountain weather. Interstate 70 and mountain passes can be affected by snow and closures, particularly in winter. Check road conditions before you leave and build in extra time.
Keep your local team in the loop. Letting your primary care clinician or gastroenterologist know about your visit makes shared follow-up easier.

If surgery is recommended

If you and Dr. Speer decide that a procedure is right for you, the care team will explain what to expect about the hospital stay, recovery, and follow-up — including which follow-up steps might be possible closer to home. Ask about travel after surgery before you schedule, so you can plan time off work and help at home.

Common questions

How can I make a trip from elsewhere in Colorado more efficient?

Send your records ahead of time, ask whether visits and tests can be scheduled on the same or consecutive days, and plan for sedation-related driving restrictions and seasonal road conditions.

The biggest time-saver is having outside records — especially operative reports, endoscopy and pathology reports, pH and manometry results, and imaging with the actual images — reviewed before you arrive. That can reduce the chance of needing an extra trip just to gather information.

When scheduling, it’s reasonable to ask whether testing can be grouped around your visit. Some tests, such as an endoscopy or Bravo capsule placement, involve sedation, which means someone else must drive and you may prefer to stay locally that night. Mountain travel can be affected by weather, so allow extra time in winter.

Can tests done closer to home be used?

Often, yes. Recent, complete results from other facilities can usually be reviewed; sometimes a test needs to be repeated because it is outdated, incomplete, or was done in a way that doesn’t answer the current question.

For example, a pH study performed while taking a PPI answers a different question than one performed off medication, and an older endoscopy may not reflect current findings. Detailed reports — and for manometry and pH testing, the full reports with tracings when available — are more useful than a one-line summary. If you’re unsure whether a test will be accepted, ask when you schedule.

This page is general education. It can’t account for your history, test results, or other conditions, so please discuss your situation with your own clinician.

Traveling from elsewhere in Colorado