Dixie Regional to expand neurosciences

Dixie Regional Medical Center will expand its neuroscience program by welcoming southern Utah’s first two neurosurgeons in 2012 and 2013, and adding an interventional pain specialist to the hospital’s medical staff immediately.

Neurosurgeons Dr. Chad Douglas Cole of the University of Utah School of Medicine, and Dr. Benjamin D. Fox of Baylor College of Medicine, will be joining Dixie Regional Neurosciences in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

Dr. Derek Frieden, interventional pain specialist, has also returned to St. George after spending the past year practicing with Intermountain in central Utah.

“These excellent physicians will complement our outstanding team of clinicians and specialists from the fields of pain management, orthopedic surgery, neurology, psychology, psychiatry, sleep medicine, radiology, and physical medicine and rehabilitation,” said Mitch Cloward, hospital operations officer over neurosciences.

More than 600 conditions afflict the nervous system, from well-known disorders such as stroke, spine ailments, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and multiple sclerosis to rare conditions affecting only a handful of patients nationally. “There is essentially no hospital department that is not touched by neurosciences,” said Cloward.

In many areas of the country, this cross-over often creates a competitive environment between practitioners and results in difficulties for patients in coordination of care. “Dixie Regional Neurosciences is unique in its team-based approach,” said Cloward. “By bringing all the appropriate specialists together in one clinic, we are able to foster a collaborative environment to best serve patients.”

Dixie Regional also serves its spine patients by carefully tracking data on surgical outcomes. “Believe it or not, most institutions around the country don’t track their outcomes like we do,” said Cloward.

Cloward expects neurosurgery in St. George to develop in stages once Dr. Cole and Dr. Fox arrive, eventually culminating in brain surgery and treatment of neuro-trauma cases — a key to the hospital’s evolution from a Level-3 trauma center to Level-2.