Hello!  

My name is Richard Keller and for those of you who don’t know me, I’m a family doctor and have been working at your health center for just over two years. Before this, I practiced for five years at Mercy Family Medicine in Durango and Bayfield. For the last year here, I’ve been splitting time between seeing patients and doing administrative work as your chief medical officer. Though it’s been only a short while, I’d like to share a few things I’ve noticed along the way. 

First, we owe many of you an apology. A relationship of trust between provider and patient is the most fundamental piece to the healing relationships we hope to grow at the health center. In years past, that has been almost impossible for many of you to establish due to the large amount of staff turnover. Helping to build and maintain a stable, competent, and dedicated provider team is currently my number one goal. In addition to myself, many of you have met Nenette Mcnamara and Stacy Concelman who have been here for four and two years, respectively. They are both excellent nurse practitioners: smart, compassionate, and dedicated. In addition, later this month we welcome Dr. Ryan Duvall and Dr. Erin Nealon as full-time physicians. Both are local and have spent many years practicing in Durango before deciding to join us. 

Second, I believe the health center is an excellent place to receive primary care and one I would bring my family to if I had the option. I have never worked in a facility with so many bright, enthusiastic, and hard-working people. Though I have never dreaded going to work, this job is the first I’m excited to drive to in the morning and miss even when I’m on vacation. While being surrounded by so many great people makes work enjoyable, more importantly it enables us all to do a better job paying attention to what matters: you. In addition, having a pharmacy, lab, and x-ray machine all on-site means we can make sure you get services and prescriptions you need without time wasted with insurance companies and telephone calls. 

Lastly, I want to encourage all of you to find and establish a medical relationship with someone you trust. For those of you who already come to the health center, thank you! We understand the huge amount of trust you place in us; I speak for all of us when I say it is a privilege to help take care of you. For those of you who have found a good match elsewhere, that’s also great! But for those of you who don’t have a regular provider, or haven’t been in a long while, please consider making an appointment. Getting preventive care and addressing short and long-term medical conditions is so much easier than dealing with the potential downstream consequences of neglect. That’s all I have for now, if you have a question, concern, or suggestion please feel free to reach out to me at rkeller@southernute-nsn.gov