EVANSTON — Evanston Regional Hospital hosted the monthly Evanston Chamber of Commerce luncheon on May 11; the event coincided with National Hospital Week and Nurses Recognition celebration.

“So, thank your doctors and hug a nurse if you know one,” said hospital CEO Jeremy Davis. “They do so much for us.”

Davis shared a brief overview of what is happening with ERH and had several of the newer physicians introduce themselves to attendees.

“Just over a year ago, the hospital changed over to the Quorum Health System,” he said. “This health system specifically works within rural communities and has an initiative for quality care.”

He said ERH has been in the top five for quality throughout all of Quorum’s hospitals.

“In 2015, we were the only Wyoming hospital named as a Top Quality Performer by the Joint Commission Accrediting Agency,” said Davis. “Our goal is to provide quality care close to home.”

According to Davis, one way to decrease the necessity to transfer patients to out-of-town facilities is to increase the number of highly-qualified medical providers at ERH.

“We have brought on six or seven new providers to our staff in the last seven months,” he said. “We want to serve the community better.”

One new staff member is Dr. Clyde Sullivan, a cardiologist. He’s at ERH three days per week and also assists the hospital with inpatient care.

Sullivan said he is helping to reopen the intensive care unit at ERH and also working on a new tele-critical care partnership with the University of Utah.

“This will allow us to provide care to patients who normally would have to be transferred to a Utah hospital,” said Sullivan. “The telemedicine program is still in the works, but we’re hoping to have it running soon.”

Davis said the hospital now has two new urologists who come from Utah one day per week.

“Now people don’t have to take an entire day off to go to an appointment,” said Davis, “and they don’t have to drive to Ogden or the Salt Lake Valley for services.”

He said many community members should be happy to hear that Dr. Micah Pullins is returning to Evanston and will be back at the hospital in June. Once he returns, ERH will have two orthopedic surgeons on staff (Pullins, Doug Hiller) and a nurse practitioner (Kim Larson).

Another addition to the ERH staff, coming in July, is OB/GYN Robin Thompson.

Davis was asked if Dr. Thompson would take all insurances, including Medicare, since other private physicians in Evanston do not.

“Yes, she will take Medicare and most insurance, since she isn’t a private practice,” said Davis. “We do our best to make sure we’re able to work with most insurance companies.”

Insurance and cost was another topic Davis addressed.

“I understand healthcare is costly,” he said. “We do have programs in place to help with cost. We encourage people to call us to get help and information.”

Other ERH staff members also spoke at the luncheon.

General surgeon Ian Kendrick has been in Evanston for nearly two years. He said most people don’t really know what a general surgeon does.

“I generally do most types of surgery,” he said. “Trauma type surgeries and emergency services like burst appendixes, gunshot wounds, etc. I also perform hernia, gallbladder and various scope procedures.”

Podiatrist Jesse Riley said he should not be mistaken for working with young children (as he is not a pediatrician but a podiatrist), but rather focuses on foot and ankle issues.

“I like children … mostly my own,” he said. “But I focus on feet and ankles, not kids.”

He said podiatry deals with reconstruction and mobility surgeries as well as diabetic foot care and other services most people are familiar with.

Nurse practitioner Kathy Bella has worked in southwest Wyoming for several years and said she can work “from womb to tomb.”

“I prefer not to work with the womb, but do work with infants to elderly patients,” she said. “I run the gamut on services.”

In 2016, Hiller came on staff with ERH as an orthopedic surgeon and said he comes from a long line of doctors.

“I am from Hawaii and went to college at the University of California in Berkeley,” said Hiller. “I did my internship at the oldest hospital in the United States.”

That hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital, was co-founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1751.

Hiller has extensive education and training in various forms of orthopedics and was the orthopedist for the Ironman triathlon, three Olympic Games and, most recently, the Para-Olympic Games.

“Regular Olympic athletes are awesome,” he said, “but there is nothing like a Paralympian. When I start to feel bad about my situations, I look at a photo of one of those athletes.”

Davis wrapped up the presentation by saying they aredoing their best to try to bring needed services to the community.

“We are actively trying to get a pediatrician on staff,” he said. “We have a couple of interviews scheduled. We are also trying to partner with a dermatologist and endocrinologist to come up at least once per week.”

Davis said the challenge is that Evanston doesn’t have a large enough population to sustain full-time practices for a dermatologist or endocrinologist, and few doctors want to take the extra time from their schedules to drive to Evanston when they could be seeing more patients.