The Southern Ute Health Center (SUHC) currently has three full time providers and four part time providers, including a Pediatrician and an Internal Medicine provider. The SUHC has continued to maintain permanent staff of medical providers and has not staffed locum providers for the last five years.  Locums are place holders, or temp positions in the world of medical practice.  

“We’ve had no provider leave in five years, which is exceedingly uncommon for a facility of our size,” said Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Richard Keller. 

Medical providers are defined as Nurse Practitioners and Physicians. 

Historically the Southern Ute Health Center did have a high turnover and a large number of temp providers prior to 2020. “Our site has moved toward low turnover, as the rest of the healthcare world has gone toward higher turnover,” Keller said. 

SUHC has a total of seven healthcare providers onsite. This does not include physical therapy, behavioral health, dental, optometry, pharmacists, and visiting specialists.  

“Everyone here has come over from Mercy, La Plata Family Medicine, Animas Surgical, most choose to be here, specifically to work here with this team at SUHC and with this group of patients,” Keller said. “It creates an inertia, once you have two or three great people, you build a team.” 

Many providers come from urban areas, or larger medical facilities and can find themselves out of place in rural communities, such as Durango or Ignacio. “If you hire someone who already lives here, then you eliminate that variable.” Keller said. “It’s a great place to work and practice medicine. Our options for treatment, on site lab, X-ray and pharmacy are huge bonuses for patients and their provider.”  

Furthermore, if your providers are plugged into the community, and have kids in the schools they are more likely to stick around, he explained.  

Outcomes are dramatically better in places where patients receive the same person every time they come to see their provider … additionally there is a high cost associated with physician turnover, both in terms of the financial outcomes and from a health perspective.  

“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,” Keller said when first assuming the responsibility as the Southern Ute Health Center’s Chief Medical Officer in 2020.  

“It takes people more than three or four years to say, ‘I know and trust this person.’”