Gritman expands neurosurgery practice, adds other services

Gritman Medical Center’s newly-launched neurosurgery practice will build on other recent complementary expansions to its service line, including the Gritman Interventional Pain Clinic and Palouse Neurology.

Dr. Nicholas Levine will lead the new neurology program, according to a press release from Gritman. All three clinics are housed within the newly expanded C.L. Gritman Medical Office Building in downtown Moscow.

In an October interview, CEO Kara Besst said the hospital is looking to continue to expand its service line as the area population grows.

“What we’re seeing in our county and our state is we need to be ready for the growth that’s going to happen,” she said. “We’ll be recruiting in the primary care area. We will be recruiting for urology, orthopedics, ENT.”

A few months after Gritman announced expansions to its orthopedic surgery team in the spring, Inland Orthopaedic in July informed patients that doctors at the practice would no longer be on-call at Gritman, as those positions would be covered by the hospital’s physicians. 

However, Besst said, doctors at Inland Orthopaedic retained privileges. Besst said there are also plans to add to the available oncology services at the medical center.

“One of the service lines that we’ve been talking about is having radiation,” she said. “Hopefully, in five years, we’ll be able to bring that.”

One of the biggest health care needs in the area, by Gritman’s assessment, is physical accessibility of health care services.

Gritman’s Community Health Needs Assessment for 2023-25 shows the top 10 health priorities for the county are as follows: mental health, access to childcare, healthcare services affordability, affordable housing, the physical presence of healthcare services, livable wage, preventative healthcare, alcohol/substance abuse, diabetes and cancer.

Gretta Jarolimek, chief clinics officer at Gritman, said adding more services within the medical center will mean fewer patients need to travel for care.

“When you grow your own service line within the umbrella of an organization, it also gives you a unique opportunity to have that higher level of investment and ownership throughout the entire organization,” she said.

Other services Gritman added to or invested in over the past year, include a new DaVinci robotics surgical system, internal medicine, pediatrics, gastroenterology and improvements to a health clinic in Troy, Idaho. The medical center also will introduce a new electronic health records system in June.