New Additions - February 2011

By: Jennifer Rook    

    There are fifty seven residents in the Uinta Basin who depend upon dialysis to clean their blood every three days in order to survive. Thanks to Uintah Basin Medical Center, those fifty seven residents now have a brand new, state of the art facility in Roosevelt to serve their kidney dialysis needs. The new dialysis center at UBMC is nearing completion and UBMC's newest staff member, Steven Turley Md. is preparing his family for a move to Roosevelt in July. Turley will serve the community as a nephrologist and internal medicine specialist at UBMC.

Dialysis is necessary for those patients whose kidneys are not functioning properly. The kidneys maintain the body's internal equilibrium of water and minerals (sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and sulfate). Once those minerals are used, the end products that the body cannot get rid of through respiration are excreted through the kidneys. Dialysis treatments replace some of these functions and are necessary for many patients including some diabetics.

Having a dialysis center here in Roosevelt will be a blessing to many patients who have had to travel elsewhere before now. UBMC Public Relations and Marketing Director, Gary Child, says "The benefit of having a community hospital is being able to keep healthcare money here in the Basin to invest in the needs of the community. If we can provide service as well as or better than the Wasatch Front then we will provide that service." UBMC officials recognized the need for the dialysis center when studies showed the tri-county area (Duchesne, Uintah and Daggett counties) had the highest diabetes occurrence in the state of Utah. Patients will be able to receive dialysis treatments in the new center and will also benefit from the services of Dr. Steven Turley. Child adds, "The new dialysis center and Dr. Steven Turley will not only help those who are currently on dialysis, but it is also our hope to keep people healthy and off dialysis. We hope to help patients manage their diabetes better and to prevent diabetes and other complications. There are many pre-diabetic individuals walking around the Basin as well. They're predisposed to diabetes and don't even really know it. We hope to raise awareness and introduce prevention techniques."

The new dialysis center will be housed in the recently renovated clinic building just across the street from the hospital parking lot. The clinic, which previously housed OB/GYN offices, was completely gutted to construct the new dialysis center. Turley says he is excited to return to Utah to practice medicine and is looking forward to helping Basin residents who suffer from kidney dysfunction and other complications. "The Uinta Basin is a very unique location for a nephrologist. With all the changes that are going on in health care these days I'm happy to have the opportunity to work in a smaller organization. It's fun to be able to be more of a traditional doctor and I hope to help the people who are on dialysis, but I also want to keep people from ever having to have dialysis."

Diabetes and high blood pressure, both treatable and manageable diseases, are two of the biggest silent killers of our time. Dr. Turley explains, "The two biggest reasons people would end up on dialysis are high blood pressure and diabetes. I hope to combat these diseases with prevention. Obesity is a problem that plagues every state in our nation. But, sometimes just returning a patient to a normal, healthy weight is enough to get him or her off diabetes and/or blood pressure meds."

Dr. Turley comes to the Basin from Louisiana where he finished his medical residency, but he was born in Utah and is excited to get back. "I feel like I'm coming home." Turley says. His wife, Angela was born in Bountiful so she is thrilled to be close to home as well. UBMC officials are pleased to have Dr. Turley aboard and are looking forward to bringing on more physicians in the near future as other construction projects near completion.

Construction on 42,000 square feet of new clinic space is on-going at UBMC. The new wing of the clinic will house three floors of doctor's offices and will allow for a spacious storage basement as well. Child says space at UBMC is currently maxed out so the new addition is very welcome. "Once we have the space, we will add two family practices and another ER doctor this year. It will be nice to have more space for our current doctors as well. We hope to move into the new clinic space by July 1^st of this year." UBMC has also purchased the former Moon Lake building to make over and use for future office space and allow even more hospital growth.