Health Care

Expanding ways to ‘be there’ for wellness care and beyond!

BY ANN HARRISON PHOTOS COURTESY ST. LUKE'S WOOD RIVER MEDICAL CENTER

Let’s face it, we will always be needed by others. Our friends, our family, our clients, our community… you name it, people need other people. But, the most important person who needs you, is you. Staying on top of your own wellness is the best thing you can do in your quest to ‘be there’ for others. The good news is that St. Luke’s Wood River, or just St. Luke’s, as the locals like to call it, has been expanding care to ‘be there’ for our community in more ways than ever.

St. Luke’s has long been providing worldclass health care to our active community and they just keep giving us more. And, just when you thought you were getting sick of our new virtual world, you’ll likely feel the opposite when it comes to expanded choices in care.

Last year St. Luke’s developed and incorporated many new best practices that will continue to evolve to keep our local health care providers and patients safe, such as universal masking, and e-check-in for appointments. St. Luke’s Health System was also able to accelerate the rollout of virtual visits, via telehealth, for many service lines in order to provide care outside of the walls of the hospital and clinic setting. Virtual care is integrated into St. Luke’s in many ways, with a variety of service lines, including wellness checks and behavioral health, and now, even emergency care.

“A virtual visit is a real-time, audio-visual interaction between patients/families and providers using telehealth technology. It occurs via myChart and can take place on a tablet or smartphone. Some e-visits can also occur over the telephone without video,” explained Dr. Frank Batcha, a physician with SLWR Family Medicine. At St. Luke’s, virtual care is an efficient and relatively easy way to deliver clinical care. Patients can contact their primary care

Any patient who walks provider or specialist to inquire about utilizing myChart and telehealth. Patients can also in the doors of any message their provider, request prescription refills, view test results, schedule appoint-

St. Luke’s emergency ments and e-check-in for an upcoming visit via myChart.department should know In fact, over the past year, St. Luke’s they are getting the same has made increasing use of virtual services at varying levels and piloted expansion of level of care, no matter if some offerings. The pilot efforts have turned out to be so successful at improving patient their location is in the city outcomes, at lower costs, that St. Luke’s is permanently expanding the virtual services to or in the mountains. all of its nine emergency departments. Now, virtual bedside consultations and extended support coordinated through St. Luke’s Virtual Care Center will be available in St. Luke’s emergency departments here in the Wood River Valley alongside more traditional emergency care. Now patients and doctors can utilize live, two-way cameras, remote patient monitoring equipment and electronic health

records to connect with physicians and specialists in the Boise center to right from our local emergency department.

“These expanded emergency department services are such an important effort to standardize care across all St. Luke’s emergency departments,” said Krista Stadler, St. Luke’s Health System senior director of telehealth. “Any patient who walks in the doors of any St. Luke’s emergency department should know they are getting the same level of care, no matter if their location is in the city or in the mountains.”

I suppose we can thank the pandemic for accelerating our virtual world in positive ways when it comes to health care. This is a big deal in emergency care and these new advancements extend into St. Luke’s overall commitment to provide access to worldclass care throughout the St. Luke’s Health System. Telehealth has existed for years at St. Luke’s and is a great way to stay up to date on annual screenings and non-emergency visits. And now, if you do find yourself in the emergency department, SLWR has expanded how they can ‘be there’ too.

One of the reasons St. Luke’s is such a strong facility in our valley is due to the generosity of our community. The hospital was built on and continues to constantly improve because of the ongoing investments from donors. The entire St. Luke’s Health System puts an equal amount of focus on providing resources for wellness and preventative care as they do on treating acute illness and emergency care.

Whether you want to go to the clinic or utilize the virtual telehealth system, St. Luke’s is making it easier than ever to stay on track (or get back on track) with self-care so you can ‘be there’ for family and friends. Visit stlukesonline.org to learn more about all the services available through St. Luke’s.

St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center is the only hospital within a 75-mile radius of Ketchum, Sun Valley, Hailey and Bellevue. SLWRMC maintains 25 inpatient beds with approximately 440 employees and 45 physicians on active staff. Services range from OB/ GYN, Pediatrics, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Neurology, Orthopedics, and more as well as ENT, Gastroenterology, Urology, Cardiology, Oncology and more through visiting specialists. SLWRMC has a full range of diagnostic laboratory testing, X-ray, CT, EEG, MRI as well as state-of-the-art 3D mammography at the Women’s Imaging Center. SLWRMC is part of St. Luke’s Health System which has multiple hospital campuses and a broad mix of diagnostic and clinical sites that together serve southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. Air St. Luke’s transports patients in critical situations via helicopter, fixed wing or ground transport Air St. Luke’s is used in case someone needs to be transported via ground, rotor or fixed wing to a larger or specialized health care system outside of our rural community. It is the region’s most comprehensive medical transport program, operating as mobile critical care units with advanced lifesaving equipment and technology.

As a Critical Access Hospital with a level IV trauma designation, St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center can stabilize and transport those needing complex or specialized care. Starting at just $60/year (or $1000 for a lifetime membership) any family can sign up for the service and have peace of mind.

For more information on membership, please go to

stlukesonline.org.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

CLINICS Sterling Urgent Care

507 S. Main St., Hailey (208) 788-4122 sterlingurgentcare.com

PHYSICAL THERAPY Peak Physical Therapy

507 S. Main St., Hailey (208) 788-6312 peakphysicaltherapy.net

CHIROPRACTIC Gwen VanDooren Chiropractic

717 Buttercup Rd., Hailey (208) 720-3023

Hailey Chiropractic

513 N. Main St., Ste. #2, Hailey (208) 788-3211

PHARMACY Atkinsons’ Drug Store

91 E. Croy St., Hailey (208) 788-5090

Luke’s Family Pharmacy

101 S. Main St., Hailey (208) 788-4970 lukespharmacy.com

Albertsons Sav-on Pharmacy

911 N. Main St., Hailey (208) 788-6713

Valley Apothecary

201 N. Washington Ave., Ketchum (208) 726-26RX (2679)

HYPERBARICS Hyperbarics of Sun Valley

613 N. River St., Hailey (208) 720-4603 hyperbaricsofsunvalley.com