GRHS starts full-time orthopedics department, to expand rehab area

Glencoe Regional Health Services (GRHS) is establishing its first full-time orthopedics department and significantly expanding its rehabilitation department to provide area residents with convenient, local access to specialized care for bones, muscles, joints and connective tissues.
“We are transitioning away from having visiting orthopedic specialists three days a week to having orthopedic providers on our own medical staff five days week. This change will make it easier for patients who need immediate care and for those who require surgery to have their procedure, recover and rehabilitate close to home,” explained GRHS President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jon Braband.
At the end of June, GRHS discontinued its relationship with the orthopedic group that previously visited Glencoe and has already hired two permanent staff providers for its new orthopedics department. Both of these providers will start at GRHS on Oct. 19, 2015.
Brian Walters, M.D., is an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist. His training included a five-year orthopedic surgery residency at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and a one-year sports medicine fellowship at Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. Walters has a special interest in minimally invasive surgery for shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and ankles, including arthroscopic management of hip pain, as well as total joint replacement procedures. He will see patients and perform surgeries at GRHS two days per week.
Terese Haasken is a certified physician assistant with more than nine years of experience specializing in orthopedic care. She received her physician assistant degree from Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Haasken’s role will include assisting in surgery, casting, splinting, fitting medical equipment, prescribing medications, giving injections and aspirations, and providing post-surgical follow-up care. She will see patients and assist with orthopedic surgeries at GRHS five days per week.
To ensure that orthopedics care is not interrupted during the provider transition, GRHS has arranged for orthopedic surgeon Paul Damrow, M.D., to join its staff on an interim basis until Dr. Walters has settled into his practice here.
Dr. Damrow has more than 25 years experience providing orthopedic care, principally at Park Nicollet Health Services in the Twin Cities. He earned his medical degree and completed post-graduate internships and residencies in general and orthopedic surgery at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Dr. Damrow has a special interest in treating conditions involving the lower extremities, including knee and hip replacement. He sees patients at GRHS on Mondays and Wednesdays.

For more, see the July 29 print edition of The Chronicle.