Physician Opportunities

Physician Opportunities

Part-time General Surgeon and Full-time Primary Care Physician

We are currently actively recruiting for a part-time general surgeon and a full-time primary care physician.

We need the primary care physician to replace a general surgeon, who also did general practice. The physician hired will replace Dr. Obray who suffered a stroke in February and has recently decided to retire. Obray has been practicing in our community for almost 30 years and had a busy medical practice.

Because of Obray's retirement, we also need a general surgeon. The similar sized hospital 30 miles east of us in Montpelier, Idaho, also lost (to retirement) their general surgeon in January 2007. This hospital is called Bear Lake Memorial Hospital, see their website at www.blmhospital.com.

To give the recruited surgeon a larger patient base, we have recently decided to jointly recruit with BLMH and hope we can find a full-time general surgeon who would operate at both hospitals. Information about the number of cases our surgeons did, etc., is available from either CEO to an interested general surgeon.

We had considered recruiting for a third primary care physician for a couple of years, but decided to wait for a year until the practice of our last family physician we recruited was full. Now with our general surgeon's disability, we need the third primary care physician immediately, to prevent losing patients from our service area, primarily to near by Pocatello and Logan.

Income, Benefits, and Educational Expense Reimbursement

The hospital would offer an income guarantee or employment status for the new physicians, and convenient office space is available from the hospital. We offer a benefit package including an excellent retirement plan.

Our service area is officially designated as a physician manpower shortage area and physicians who come to practice here may be eligible for reimbursement of their educational expenses under both federal and state programs.

Service Area and Location Information

Soda Springs, Idaho, is a city of approx. 3,500 people, the county seat of Caribou County. Other nearby towns in the county include Grace and Bancroft. The hospital's service area has a population of approx. 7,500.

Thirty miles/minutes southeast of Soda Springs is Montpelier, Idaho, which has Bear Lake Memorial Hospital. Bear Lake County, Idaho has only this one hospital, and serves a population of about 10,000, considering the southern part of Bear Lake, which is located in Utah.

Soda Springs is 1 hour east of Pocatello, Idaho, 1.25 hours north of Logan, Utah, 2.5 hours north of Salt Lake City, Utah, 1.75 hours south of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and 1.5 hours south of Idaho Falls.

Medical Provider Information

There are currently (April 2007) three physicians and one PA practicing in the county.

John Franson, MD, (40), is a board certified family physician, out of residency in Spokane, Washington since 2002. He does OB, C-Sections and colonoscopies. He is an employee of the hospital and practices in a clinic building on the hospital campus, called the LakeView Clinic. He has a physician’s assistant, Brett A. Smith, PA-C, (38), who spends half of his time at the Lakeview Clinic in Soda Springs and the other half in Grace at our clinic there.

Brian Anderson, DO, (34), is a family physician who completed his residency in Spokane, Washington, in June 2004. He does OB, C-sections, and Endoscopy. He is an employee of Caribou Memorial Hospital and practices in the Lakeview Clinic, which is also a rural health clinic.

Gerald Young, MD,(61) has practiced in Soda Springs for 29 years, practices part-time from an office adjacent to the hospital and does not have hospital privileges, nor does he take ER call. He does part-time industrial medicine for Monsanto at their plant site.

There is a full-time anesthetist, Brad Strupp, CRNA, who has back up from other CRNAs, so there is always anesthesia on call.

The physicians on the Medical Staff, although not in a group practice, share call and ER coverage and bill the professional fees from their offices which they staff four days a week, typically seeing 15-20 patients per day. The Hospital's ER is also staffed by family practice residents from Pocatello and other area physicians willing to "moonlight." Average ER visits per day is 4, with a range from 0 to 10. Ambulance and helicopter services to Pocatello and Salt Lake City are readily available.

The physician on-call can stay home until called to the ER, unless they are in their office, which they just leave to go to the ER. The PA is also credentialed to cover the ER.

Hospital Information

Caribou Memorial Hospital and Living Center is a Critical Access Hospital. It has 25 acute care beds with an average acute census of 2.5 patients/day; the Living Center averages 30 residents. About 50 obstetrical deliveries occur each year, including C-Sections. Lab, Radiology, including CT scan and ultrasound, are available 24 hours a day; MRI comes once a week. The hospital is owned by the county and is financially stable.

Community Information

The county has a high per capita income for Idaho, primarily because of the phosphate mines and smelters, which is our largest industry (Monsanto is the largest employer), followed by farming (barley, wheat and potatoes). There is a high rate of private health insurance (Blue Cross), with no managed care. The population is statistically relatively healthy, compared with Idaho and the rest of the county.

The county has a fairly stable population (little migration, in or out). Shopping, two supermarkets and an Alco store (like a small Wal-Mart), is located in Soda Springs. Pocatello, an hour west, has major shopping centers, Idaho State University, etc.

There are three public (no private) K-12 school systems in the county, Soda Springs, Grace, and North Gem in Bancroft. The schools are considered progressive; most graduates go on to college, e.g., Idaho State University in Pocatello, Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg, Utah State University in Logan, or Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Churches represented in the County include the Assembly of God, Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

All that is best about small-town America, you’ll find in Soda Springs! The city has several parks, one with a pond stocked with trout, so kids have a place they can always catch fish, our stone Presbyterian Church is a famous historical landmark and we have the world’s only “captive geyser” right downtown.

There is a county-wide July 4th celebration, with a fun run-walk, a parade, carnival, and fireworks that attracts thousands each year, and during winter, the hiking trails at Kelly Park become groomed skiing trails--we were a practice venue for the Olympics! The closest ski resort is only 30 minutes away! Visit http://www.sodaspringsid.com for more information on our beautiful area.

For additional information contact:

John L. Hoopes, CEO
Caribou Memorial Hospital
hoopes@cariboumemorial.org
Direct phone: (208) 547-2780

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