Medical professionals are hardworking folks who pride themselves on being able to get their patients fixed up right. It also helps if they have a great “bedside manner,” and the newest addition to the Splitrock Clinic outreach staff has that charm in spades.
Heidi Thoreson, PA-C just joined the staff of Garretson’s Avera Clinic only two short weeks ago. She’ll be a regular here with office hours in the afternoons every Friday from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Just one conversation with her shows clearly a sound medical mind with a happy-go-lucky demeanor and a can-do attitude.
“I decided that I wanted have my career in medicine after an experience I had when I was 13,” Thoreson said. “It was something I’d always considered, but when I was 13 I got very sick, and a great group of people made me well again. It inspired me, so it was pre-med for me.
Because I wanted to have a family I decided that a Physician’s Assistant route was the best way to go.”
Thoreson is originally from Lake Benton, MN. She did her Pre-med degree at NDSU.
“Yes it’s tough being a Bison in Jackrabbit territory, but I get by,” she quipped.
She is also a Coyote, getting her PA-C at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. She works at the Avera Clinic in Dell Rapids where she also lives and has also done other outreach clinic work in Pipestone and Jasper. She is married with two children, fraternal twins both 9 years old.
“Clinics like Garretson’s are good for the community, helps to keep things as local as possible,” she said. “Certainly, Sioux Falls has the medical infrastructure where you can treat almost anything, but it can be quite a drive just to meet your ordinary everyday medical needs.
