Hi! I am Justin Abbott. My wife Sara and I have four children, Hallie, Isaac, Jake and our caboose Alivia. We have enjoyed living in Central Utah for the last twelve years. We have enjoyed camping and fishing in our mountains and I greatly enjoy horses and farming. Professionally, I went to undergraduate at the University of Utah, Medical School and Business School in Kansas City, Missouri and Residency at Utah Valley Hospital. I am excited to spend more time in Wayne County, and look forward to working with all the staff and getting to know the community.

Daniel is a Physician Assistant coming to Wayne County from Payson, Utah. He is married with four children. Daniel and his family love the outdoors especially hunting and fishing. Daniel graduated with a Baccalaureate of Science from Brigham Young University. He received a Master of Physician Assistant Studies from Idaho State University and is certified by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants and licensed in the state of Utah. Daniel has received hand on medical training from rural Emergency Medicine in Arco, Idaho to the busy surgery floor at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray.

Zach was born and raised in Sevier County. He attended Southern Utah University in Cedar City, UT where he obtained his Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing. After working as a Registered Nurse for several years in a variety of settings including: Rehabilitation, Medical/Surgical, Operating Room and in an Intensive Care Unit, Zach attended A.T. Still University in Arizona. There he received advanced training and earned his Master of Medical Science in Physician Assistant Studies. He is certified by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) and licensed in the state of Utah. Zachs special interests include Pediatric, Geriatric, Womans Health, Emergency Medicine, Diabetes, and Preventative Medicine.

I am excited to serve again in my hometown community. My wife and I love Wayne County and are fortunate to raise our family here. We enjoy the outdoors, hunting, camping, ATVs and spending time with friends and family. I graduated from the University of Utah PA program and love helping others and enjoy learning all I can.

Michael is our Mental Health provider and is a Certified EMDR therapist. EMDR is a specialized treatment for trauma, anxiety and depression. EMDR also has applications for treating chronic pain. He has been working with couples, families and teens for 30 years. His experience includes working in outpatient as well as residential settings. Mike has also been trained in the use of rehabilitation services with equine therapy and applies this area of expertise in his work with family systems. He and his wife live in Wayne County and they have five children.

Ryan received his Family Nurse Practitioner degree from Frontier Nursing University and is accredited by The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. Previous to completing his Masters degree, Ryan worked as a registered nurse specializing in intensive care and orthopedics. Ryan completed the majority his clinical rotations in a rural critical access hospital and cliniclocated in Milford, Utah. Ryan moved to Escalante in 2016 with his wife and six children- three boys and three girls. He and his family enjoy spending time together in the outdoors, playing games, and working on projects. Ryan and his wife were both raised in Beaver County. They are looking forward to raising their family in the rural community of Escalante and establishing long term relationships within the community.

Sherree is a Nurse Practitioner certified in Family Practice and Gerontology. She joined the clinic staff in 2007 after with 30 years of a nursing career with experience in labor and delivery, critical care, supervisory and home health. She is a native of Escalante, having returned to the area after years of working out of state.

Tad, a native of Utah, graduated from Southern Utah University in 1994 with a Bachelor degree in Sociology and a Minor in Criminal Justice. He continued his education earning a Masters degree from the University of Utah as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in 1998. Since that time he has gained experience from numerous internships which include Dixie Regional Medical Center Behavioral Medicine Unit and Division of Child and Family Services as well as becoming a Certified School Social Worker. He worked for the Juvenile Justice system as Youth Corrections Lead Counselor in Cedar City from 1993-2000. During that same time he worked with Intermountain Specialized Abuse Treatment program as a therapist dealing with sex offenders. Since 2000 he was the Clinical Director for a boys ranch treatment center and in 2012 became the Clinical Director for Garfield County Jail Drug Program in Panguitch. He, his wife Melaney, and their five kids have enjoyed living in Panguitch for the last nine years and are excited to part of Kazan Memorial Clinic in Escalante and another resource for Panguitch and Garfield County. He will be working in both Panguitch and Escalante as a counselor.

I am a Sevier County native growing up in Monroe and graduating from South Sevier High. I have lived in St George area for the past 16 years where I met my lovely wife and started a family. I have 3 amazing kids and a dog, I love spending time with them doing all things outdoors from running and biking to hiking, hunting, and fishing. I went to school at Snow College for my nursing degree and then went on to University of Cincinnati for my Nurse Practitioner training. I am a huge college football fan Roll Tide!!!! I really love taking care of people and love my job. I am excited to work in Salina and provide good quality evidence based healthcare for the people of Salina and the surrounding area.

We are currently seeing a surge of COVID 19 in our community lead by the highly contagious Delta Variant. Happily, current vaccines continue to be highly effective at preventing infection. While we have seen a few fully vaccinated patients come down with COVID 19, their infections tend to be much less severe than if they had not been vaccinated. For those not yet vaccinated I would highly encourage you do to so. As you contemplate this decision, please consider the following:

Its becoming increasingly probable that most adults who do not get the vaccine will get the virus. The choice seems to be more and more, Do I get the vaccine? Or do I get the virus? Getting the vaccine is a personal choice. There are a lot of things we dont know about the vaccine. Will I become ill? Will there by long term complications that we currently dont know about? These are important things to consider, but the same questions can be asked about the virus. How sick will I become? Will I have long term complications?

In regards to the vaccine, other than the common short lived side effects of arm pain and flu like symptoms, we have seen very few serious side effects. As with any vaccine, there is the rare incidence of an acute serious allergic reaction. We have also seen a few cases of blood clots with the Johnson and Johnson vaccine in women under age 50. There have also been extremely rare cases of heart inflammation. Historically, serious side effects to vaccines have usually shown up within the first 6 weeks. The COVID vaccines are under the most intense scrutiny of any vaccine in history and to date with over 350 million doses given in the US, serious side effect have remained extremely rare. To date, nothing has lead us to believe we will see serious side effects in the future.

In regards to the virus, symptoms can range from none or very mild symptoms such as a runny nose or slight cold to hospitalization and even death. Your risk of becoming seriously ill is directly correlated with your age and also chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, chronic kidney disease and chronic lung disease. While the risk of serious illness is less if you are younger, ongoing complications of COVID 19 such as shortness of breath, inability to taste and smell, and brain fog can happen even in the otherwise young and healthy. Inflammation of the arteries has also been documented. As with the vaccine, we dont know if problems will show up from COVID 19 infection in a few years, but given the effects of the virus on so many parts of our body, I think the chances are high.