Marco Salmen, MD

About Marco

Dr. Marco Salmen is an emergency physician and Hospitalist at Valley View. He completed his combined emergency and internal medicine residency at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minn., after earning his medical degree from the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He also serves as a physician member of Valley View’s Opiate Stewardship Committee, helping to address responsible opiate use in the medical setting and proper treatments for opiate use disorders.

Dr. Salmen has deep connections to the Roaring Fork Valley—in fact, he was born at Valley View. “I grew up knowing the hospital,” he says. “I always hoped to return to the valley, and once I had the opportunity to move back with my family, I jumped at it.”

His father, a primary care physician in the valley for 35 years, instilled in Dr. Salmen the value of community care. “Transitioning hospital care back to the primary physician is so important in the long term,” he says. “I love helping my patients establish care plans, and then teaming up with primary care doctors to put them into action and make them successful.”

“That teamwork is such an important part of our job,” he continues. “Every department in the hospital comes together to treat our sickest patients in the acute setting. No one is siloed, and I love that interaction.”

For the past ten years, Dr. Salmen has volunteered with a community-based organization in Kenya called Organic Health Response, supported by many donors from the Roaring Fork Valley. Among other activities, the organization arranges emergency transport, primarily by boat, for laboring mothers who require a higher level of care than might be available locally. In addition to assisting in this important work, Dr. Salmen enjoys trail running when he gets a sunny afternoon to himself. “Single track mountain trails are my greatest mental refresher,” he says. “And living here, where I have them right out the front door, it’s perfect.”