By Libby Cluett
lcluett@mineralwellsindex.com

Mineral Wells and Palo Pinto County have recently experienced growing needs for physicians and Palo Pinto General Hospital CEO Harris Brooks has high hopes that new doctors will help fill those needs.

New bone doc

At last week’s Palo Pinto Hospital District board meeting, Brooks reported the successful recruitment of new orthopedic surgeon Eric Brock, from Lubbock. The recent Texas Tech University graduate will start Aug. 3.

“The need is here,” said Brooks, who said they are able to track the need.

While he noted that Brock will treat general orthopedic needs, Brooks said the surgeon is also quite competent in surgery on hands and upper extremities, and looks forward to expanding that service in the area.

New family practice doc

Brooks said he and the PPGH board worked hard to recruit another family practitioner to fill the community’s needs since Dr. David Ramsey retired in 2008 and Dr. Robert Allensworth recently moved into practice solely as an emergency physician, closing his family practice Feb. 1.

Family practitioner Dr. Michael Bailey has the newest practice in town, which he started part time the second week of May and full time last week, according to Bailey’s partner, Angela Brewer.

Both Bailey and Brewer have worked with PPGH for a couple of years as emergency room physician and nurse, respectively. The also started a family practice in Weatherford.

“Weatherford is saturated with family practitioners,” said Brooks, which he said is why Mineral Wells’ needs appealed to Bailey.

Bailey said that Brooks approached him about the need for another family practice in Palo Pinto County, which got the ball rolling and new office doors open next door to PPGH.

“The need here was greater than that in Weatherford and it’s been a lot more successful [here] just because someone needs us,” said Bailey.

Bailey, a Fort Worth native, has a board certification with the American Board of Family Medicine. He received his medical training as a Doctor of Osteopathy from the University of North Texas Health Science Center. He completed an internship and residency in family practice at John Peter Smith Hospital, where he also served as chief resident during his last year.

“I like to practice a comprehensive type of Family Practice – taking care of things that can be taken care of in town,” said Bailey. “I practiced in a small community of 5,000 [in Coleman, Texas], where I did C-sections, tubals [tubal ligations] and appendectomies.”

In Coleman, Bailey’s practice was essentially a “one-stop shop.” Brewer added that Bailey also delivered babies and performed endoscopes, EGDs [esophagogastroduodenoscopy], colonoscopies and took care of dermatological biopsies and treatment of lesions.

“He loves small communities and is all about supporting community and supporting your local hospital,” she said.

His experience has been with obstetrics and “infants on up to geriatrics.”

So far, he has mostly seen adults over 50 years old and geriatrics. “I like to see children here, too,” said Bailey.

Both Bailey and Brewer have seen their impact. “[We’re] helping already – elderly people who had no one now have someone,” said Bailey.

In addition to caring for people from birth to geriatric age, he also offers immunizations, Department of Transportation physicals, drug testing and contracts with some local companies like Cantex and Diamond. Bailey said he accepts most major private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid.

Brewer said that they are now seeing about 30-40 percent of their capacity of patients.

“He’s planing on hiring a nurse practitioner before getting close to capacity to try to prevent patients from having a long wait for appointments,” she said.

Other comings

“As of May 22, Dr. [Patrick] Hisel is back in full practice,” noted Brooks. “We’re glad he’s back.”

But Brooks said that even with Hisel back and Bailey in practice, PPGH is “still looking to add an additional family practitioner.”

The field of nurse practitioners is growing locally, as well, with the addition of two newcomers to the PPGH roster. These are Mary Mens, who now works alongside Dr. Sat Gupta in the PPGH Family Health Clinic, and Laura Moore, who entered a newly created position as a pre-op nurse practitioner.

Brooks said that Moore’s new role is “getting the patient in optimal health before surgery and to reduce complications.” He said that sometimes patients might plan a surgery but are rejected by the anesthesiologist before the procedure because of reasons ranging from cardiac arrhythmia and high blood pressure to abnormal lab work.

According to Texas Nurse Practitioners, www.texasnp.org, a nurse practitioner is registered nurse who has advanced education and clinical training. This allows them to give physical examinations, treatment and procedures, as well as order and interpret lab work and diagnostic studies among many other functions.

One going

Brooks said that PPGH hospitalist Dr. Jose Gomez will leave Aug. 7. He moved his practice to PPGH from Oklahoma, hoping to sell his house and move his family to Mineral Wells. Brooks said Gomez never sold his house and recently accepted a position with a clinic near his home in Idabel, Okla.