Hospital adds orthopedic surgeon

Woodward Regional Hospital has a new orthopedic surgeon on staff -- Dr. Patrick Kelley -- who left a practice near Dallas, Texas, to begin practicing here.

He started on Monday.

Kelly plans to give his patients “plenty of attention and state of the art surgeries.”

“I take care of nerve, tendon, trauma, sports, muscle, and reconstructive surgery,” he said. “I work from shoulder to fingertips and from hip to toes.”

In addition to orthopedic surgery, he is a doctor of osteopathic medicine.

“We are an M.D. and chiropractor combined,” he said, explaining the difference between a medical doctor and a doctor of osteopathic medicine.

“We treat the body and the structure and function and use that to help heal,” he said. “It is structure-function interrelated.”

The 45-year-old surgeon said he decided he wanted to be a doctor when in the early 1970s his father had a hip replacement done “with a lot of complications.”

“I just wanted to make him feel better,” Kelly said, adding, “I’ve always wanted to be a doctor.”

Kelly was born in Roswell, N.M., and raised in Dallas, he said.

According to Lori Messenger, spokeswoman for Woodward Regional Hospital, he attended Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, Mo., and completed his residency at the University of Health Sciences -- College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kansas City, Mo. Before attending medical school in Kirksville, he received premedical training in Athens, Ohio.

Kelly completed a fellowship at Panorama Orthopedics in Denver, Colo., and is board certified in orthopedic surgery, she said.

Kelly said he has practiced in Dallas, San Angelo, Texas, and Wichita Falls, Texas.

He chose to move to Woodward, he said, because he knew two of the nurses who work at Woodward Regional Hospital from previous practices and because he “liked the people.”

He is employed by the hospital and does not have a private practice.

“I think that (strictly being employed by the hospital) is the trend of the future,” he said, “because we won’t be able to do (private practice) economically before too long.”