Pediatrician returns to Kellogg clinic for first time in decades

After more than two decades, babies, children and teens in the Silver Valley will have access to a pediatrician.

Dr. Nicole Odom, a pediatrician at Heritage Health who is based in Coeur d’Alene, began visiting the Kellogg clinic last month.

Odom is the only pediatrician at Heritage Health, and she already rotates through the clinics in Rathdrum and Post Falls as well.

There are a handful of family practice doctors who serve Kellogg, but the community’s needs are outpacing the providers’ availability, said Graham Rachal, medical director at the Heritage Health Kellogg clinic said.

“We’ve been inundated volumewise,” Rachal said. “There are so many people we’re trying to care for.”

That’s where Odom’s skills can come in handy. By giving some kids and teens’ appointments to Odom, the other providers at the clinic can care for adults and help with other needs in the community.

Heritage Health is a federally qualified health center, meaning they care for anyone regardless of their ability to pay. Rachal said their clinic covers a lot of under- or uninsured families.

Previously, families with children would see family physicians in Kellogg, or if a medical need warranted it, make the drive down the mountain to Coeur d’Alene for pediatric care.

Not many families could do this, however, especially in the winter when Interstate 90 can be treacherous.

Now, with Odom visiting the Kellogg clinic twice a month, families no longer have to make the drive.

In her first three visits to the clinic, Odom has been busy, seeing almost full patient loads.

Odom said she still has a lot she wants to learn about the community in Kellogg from getting to know her patients. Kellogg is a mountain town of about 2,000 people on Interstate 90, about 37 miles east of Coeur d’Alene.

The biggest difference between practicing medicine in Coeur d’Alene and a smaller town is access, she said.

“The care you want to provide to somebody never changes, but the access is very different,” Odom said. “So you end up getting creative and doing something different but also making a lot of phone calls, you have to make a network of people to call and figure out how to get people what they need.”

This means sometimes Odom is connecting with specialists as far away as Seattle Children’s Hospital looking for resources for her patients.

Finding mental health and behavioral health assistance for kids and teens is the most challenging, Odom said.

Odom trained to become a pediatrician in a Dallas residency program, where she saw thousands of children and learned to spot signs early of chronic conditions or developmental delays.

Now that she is visiting the Kellogg clinic twice a week, she will be able to provide more continuity of care for families.

For example, she could help a child adjust to medication for ADHD, following their progress every two weeks.

She believes her training in such an urban setting is an asset in a rural community because she has seen and cared for so many children. She has broad experience with many kinds of conditions and care in babies, kids and teens because of her training.

While she still is relatively new to the community in Kellogg, Odom is excited about being able to offer families consistent care where they live.

Odom brings her specialized skill set in treating babies, kids and young adults to the clinic, helping already busy health care providers at the clinic with their workload.

“Her coming increases the quality of care we can give tenfold,” Rachal said.