Welcome Dr. David Ekman
Memorial Hospital of Converse County (MHCC) is eager to introduce our new provider, Dr. David Ekman, to our community. Dr. Ekman is a podiatrist and expert in foot and ankle surgery. He hails from the Western U.S. region, as he grew up in Seattle and received his undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University in Idaho. Dr. Ekman uprooted to move to the Midwest for his medical education at the Podiatry Medical School at the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. During his residency, Dr. Ekman served as Chief Resident at the St. Joseph Medical Center in Houston, Texas.
Dr. Ekman is glad to bring his ventures full circle as he comes back to the Western U.S. to make Converse County his family’s home. Dr. Ekman elaborated: “In this region where people do work hard, there's a lot of labor jobs and ranching and farming and people spending a lot of time on their feet on hard surfaces. The feet develop problems that need to be taken care of, and it's great to be here to be able to provide for that.”
One aspect of working in a rural setting Dr. Ekman enjoys is how easy it is to communicate with patients and work with other community healthcare providers. He explained that patients “…talk to me not only about their foot and ankle concerns. They talk to me about all sorts of health concerns. While I can help them with what's going on with their foot and ankle and not necessarily what's going on with the other concerns I can refer them and suggest other providers for them to see.
Dr. Ekman appreciates how close-knit the rural community in Converse County is. “It does give you a sense of community because you're not just seeing people in the office, and that's it, which is something more you would run into in a big city setting. You see people around, and they're not just your patients, they also become your friends,” he added.
Not only does Dr. Ekman enjoy the accessibility of providers and patients in the rural setting, but he also notices how the communication amongst professionals at MHCC benefits patients. “Here, working in the same hallway or the same building as other providers, I'm able to run into them, we can discuss patients, and we can develop a good relationship and be able to discuss patient care very easily,” he explained.
Dr. Ekman noted that MHCC exemplifies this relationship-based approach from the healthcare providers up to management. He described: “I can tell that they do care about me. They care about all of the employees, and it's obvious that they care about the patients and want to provide patient-centered care. So I've been very satisfied and very impressed with the level of care that they show for everyone along the scope of medical practice.”
Aside from the culture present in the rural setting and at MHCC, Dr. Ekman is also proud of the podiatric surgery MHCC offers patients, which is advanced for a rural hospital. Dr. Ekman illustrated, “Usually in a town of 6,500; you don't see a hospital of this size and with the capacity to handle surgical procedures that this hospital does. So it is up to date as far as podiatric surgeries go. You find everything there you would find at an urban hospital. The podiatrists here—myself, as well as my partner—we are trained in urban centers, and we're up-to-date with modern podiatric surgeries.”
He is confident not only in the services at MHCC but also in the quality of the decision-making within MHCC’s podiatry, foot, and ankle surgery departments. “So we try to treat everyone conservatively as far as we can, but when it's time to operate, we don't hesitate. We go for it. We're confident. And I'm confident in the hospital staff and what they can provide and assist me with,” he elaborated.
MHCC extends a warm welcome to Dr. Ekman and welcomes him to the Converse County community of Wyoming. If you have further questions or want to learn more about Dr. Ekman, please visit his web page or contact us at 307.237.3077 to hear more.