“Click and mortar”: Intermountain Health brings unique hybrid care to rural Nevada community

If you’ve ever traveled along I-80 or U.S. 93 through Nevada, you’ve probably driven through Wells, a town of 1,251 people.??

That was the experience of Doc Smith, who got stuck in Wells during a winter storm in 1980. When the town’s residents learned he was a doctor, they convinced him to stay in Wells and open a practice.???

Doc served the town for 30 years until he retired in 2011.??

Since then, town leaders have been looking for a healthcare provider. Without an in-town doctor, residents have to travel one hour to Elko for limited services or more than two hours to Salt Lake City.??

Doctors have come to Wells over the years, but the care hasn’t been sustainable — until Intermountain came to town with a unique approach to hybrid care.??

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A simple email starts a strong partnership???

Desperate to provide care for his town, the mayor of Wells emailed Intermountain. He was shocked when he received a phone call in response, and soon Intermountain’s telehealth team was looking for a model to deliver care to Wells.??

The solution is unlike anything we've ever done: an innovative click-and-mortar approach. Intermountain provides in-person services like lab testing and simple procedures, and Wells provides the building and utilities to create a sustainable financial plan to keep the clinic open.

A provider virtually supports the clinic and is in-person once or twice a month to provide essential primary care like annual check-ups, physicals, and chronic medication management. ??

The Wells Clinic also connects residents to the larger Intermountain system. Residents have access to virtual urgent care and Intermountain specialists like heart, cancer, and gastrointestinal.??

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Connecting to our mission, vision, and values??

The Wells Clinic is the first of its kind because it allows in-person treatment, when necessary, without the cost of a full-time provider on site when there isn’t enough patient volume or?a provider who lives near the community. It also allows easy access to specialty care without requiring patients to travel hours away.? ??

It’s a model Intermountain has never tried before but one that fits well with our mission to help people live their healthiest lives possible — including those in small, rural towns.??

“Not long before Wells City contacted us, I was sitting at home one night thinking about small communities and how their residents travel far to get health care — and typically only in emergencies,” said Maureen Cobabe, MD, associate medical director for primary care and family medical services. “I wondered if Intermountain could find a community that would help supply a space for a clinic where we could deliver care in a hybrid approach with some in-person and some virtual care.” ???

The Wells Clinic fits with Intermountain’s telehealth model to keep care local, serve rural communities, and become a model health system.???

Considering the hundreds of small towns in our service footprint — many that look just like Wells — this pilot program serves as a case study for other unserved communities. ??

“We’re glad to be serving the needs of the Wells community while also learning from this pilot program,” said Tim Lovell, director of operations for the clinic. “We really hope this is a model that could help other small communities that don’t have local access to care.”?