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Show Physician Assistant Hired At Garfield Memorial Hospital The newest addition to the health care team has arrived in Panguitch. Dr. Stanley J. Dezek, Jr., said Robert Mc Cullough will join the Garfield Memorial Hospital and Clinics practice as a Mcdex. McCullough has Just completed the first phase of Medex (physicians assistant) training with the Utah Medex Project at the University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City. He is one of 17 members of the ninth class the project has trained to assist physicians in the in-termountain area, Dr. Eugene Reames will be leaving the practice as of June 15 for an anesthesiology residency in Sacramento. Because of the difficulty in recruiting a replacement physician, the physician's assistant concept has been carefully studied and felt to be a viable alternative. Dr. Bezek, who is a member of the Clinical Faculty of the College of Medicine's Department of Family and Community Medicine, will serve as Medex Mc-Cullough's "preceptor" or teacher for the second phase of the program. During the next seven to nine months, Medex McCullough will work under Dr. Bezek's direct supervision as well as that of Dr. Brian Han-dley, performing part of physical examinations, taking patient histories, suturing minor lacerations, performing laboratory tests, assisting at surgery and completing numerous other medical tasks for which he has been trained. All Medex must have had extensive previous medical training and experience, in military or civilian settings, before they can be considered for the program. Prior to his selection from over 200 applicants for MEDEX training, McCullough spent over six years in the medical Field. After obtaining a degree in administration and conducting further studies in biology, McCullough attended a paramedic training program in Colorado. His work experience includes serving as a paramedic in the Denver area, the Emergency Medical Services Coordinator of a four county area in Western Colorado and as an instructor coordinator of a paramedica training program in Grand Junction. He is 31 and single. At the conclusion of his preceptorship, Medex McCullough will likely join the Garfield Memorial Clinics practice in Panguitch, Escalante and Circleville on a permanent basis, thereby extending the practices capacity to provide high quality health care to increased numbers of patients. The Utah MEDEX program sponsored by the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Utah State Medical Association was established at the University of Utah Medical Center in June, 1971. The program is fully accredited by the American Medical Associaton as a program to train primary care physician assistants. To date, over 133 Medex have been trained by the Robert McCullough program and over 75 percent are located in intermountain region communities of less than 25,000 population. |