A Lot of Services in a Small Package

By Colleen Sholar, DO

Sometimes when you live in a rural area, it’s easy to focus on the natural resources around us — honestly, that’s why many of us choose to be here. But it also means we may forget about the resources available right here in town, including at our hospital.

You probably expect some of the basics: we have an Emergency Room open 24 hours a day, and we provide inpatient hospital care for conditions that don’t require hands‑on specialty services. Our Orofino Clinic is open Monday through Friday, where we can help you manage acute and chronic health concerns, pregnancy care, wellness visits, and minor procedures like skin excisions and vasectomies. On Saturday Clinic at the hospital location provides urgent care for things like cuts and colds — and until we have a pharmacy open in town on weekends, we can even dispense a course of antibiotics when needed.

While we don’t have subspecialists here every day, we do regularly host several Kootenai physicians at the Orofino Clinic, including cardiology, vascular surgery, orthopedic surgery, and neurosurgery. At the hospital, we also offer colonoscopy screenings through Kootenai surgery and GI providers.

We’re proud to offer a wide variety of additional specialty services as well. In our Cardiopulmonary Department, we provide pulmonary function testing, both home and in‑lab sleep studies, and help coordinate consultations with sleep specialists. We can also set up home heart monitors, perform treadmill stress tests, and offer Cardiac Rehabilitation for patients recovering from recent heart issues. Our Interventional Pain Clinic is available to support chronic low‑back pain and other interventional needs.

Our Radiology Department works hard to bring as many imaging options as possible to a small community. We provide X‑rays, CT scans, a broad range of MRI studies, echocardiograms, ultrasounds of most body areas, bone density scans, and mobile 3D mammography.

I’m sure I’ve still forgotten something, but the important thing is this: we at Clearwater Valley Health are here to serve you.