We have a new medical provider at Big Sandy. Introducing Joe Epperson, who has jumped right in because he just moved in here last week, and before the boxes were unpacked, he helped with branding. Joe is married to Tenley Keller. Joe and Tenley will be living with her parents, Demrec and Harvey, Keller 14 miles from town. Joe starts working at the Medical Center on May 10th as a physician assistant, certified (PA-C). He is a healthcare professional trained to diagnose and treat illness as well as provide care.
He is originally from Columbus, Montana. He went to Carroll College for pre-med and received his PA at the University of Washington.
Joe said, "I was doing one of my final clinical rotations in Billings and met a nurse. It turned out she was going into nursing to support her barrel horse habit."
"We have two children. Our oldest is three years old, and his name is Henry. Our daughter, Eliza, will be one year old on May 15th.
Although Tenley is a registered nurse, she will not be a nurse at Big Sandy. Rather, she will be a busy mom, staying home with her children, which allows her to continue working in the horse business.
He is looking forward to working in a smaller community. "I feel like that's kind of where I came from. A small town was what I grew up around." He has been in Billings, "I guess, one of Montana's bigger cities, for the last seven years, and it's been a great education and clinical experience," but he is looking forward to having fostered connections with people like you do in a smaller town. "I'm excited about that."
Ron Wiens, CEO of Big Sandy Medical Center, told me that Joe will spend some time in Great Falls at Benefits. Joe said, "I've worked as a hospitalist in internal medicine for the last seven years in Billings, so that's just in the hospital and people who are very sick and need a lot of care. They can't go home for various reasons, but in Big Sandy, you take care of a population that's doing a little bit better than that. And some of those differences, specifically women's health, pediatrics, or those types of things. I haven't had to care for it since I was in training. Some of my time at Benefits is just to kind of brush up on some of those other aspects of doctoring."
He brings with him some much-needed expertise in internal medicine.
Joe and his family are deeply grateful for the warm welcome they have received from the Big Sandy community. 'We're just pretty thankful,' Joe shared. 'Besides our family, who's here, there's been a few people in the community who have kept reaching out to us while we've been in Billings and I think have really made us want to be in Big Sandy. Between the folks at the medical center reaching out to me about the job over the last couple of years. And then some friends that live in the community that have kids the same age as ours.' They are 'excited to be around and we're really thankful that they kept bending are ears about coming up here.'
