Sarah Brown
Sweet Home Health Center has a new physician.
Dr. Denise Kelley is celebrating one year in Oregon, and two months as a full-time physician in Sweet Home.
She studied at Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia specializing in family medicine, and remained in Pennsylvania for 18 years before moving to a smaller community in Wyoming.
“I always wanted to live in small towns and help like Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” Kelley said. “That’s what I wanted to be: Hang out in the town, be the doctor.”
Kelley moved to Oregon last year to join the Community Health Centers of Benton and Linn counties, and was hired full-time at the Sweet Home facility Sept. 1.
Her background in primary care includes experience in hospital outpatient and urgent care, and integrative, holistic and occupational medicine. She has studied functional, environmental and European biologic medicine, as well.
“I’ve done a lot of things in my career. Coming out here, I’m doing regular medicine,” she said.
Kelley’s varied background has given her experience with people of all ages, and allows her to work with people who need medication as well as those who prefer not to rely on them, she said.
“It’s about meeting people where they are.”
Sweet Home Health Center recently received a grant to start medication-assisted treatment for opioid use, in which Kelley is trained, and the county has hired a drug and alcohol counselor and social worker for the team, she said.
Kelley’s wingman is Jessica Mendoza, a certified medical assistant.
In her spare time, Kelley said she likes camping, hiking, music, quilting, reading and skiing. She has one son who is currently visiting her in Lebanon, where she lives.
She prefers Sweet Home, though, because it’s closer to the mountains, she said.
“It’s just so cute,” she said of the town. “I want to live here some day.”
Kelley likes to say she followed the Oregon Trail here because when she lived in Casper, Wyo. and drove to Rawlins, she’d pass Independence Rock.
“It’s kind of funny that I ended up here. It wasn’t ever on my radar of places to go and live.”