Surgical Issues with Myrtue Medical Center

Myrtue Medical Center's Dr. Parikh a Surgeon for Harlan has moved to a different hospital in Phoenix AZ, to spend more time with his daughter there who is a family doctor there.

Many towns around SouthWest Iowa does not have a surgeon.

To find out more we interviewed Dr. Scott Markham a Family Practice Physican here in Harlan.

Q: What do you do for patients that need a surgical procedure?
A: Currently we are using surgeons from others cities like Council Bluffs and Omaha.

Q: Is it difficult to get help from these surgens?
A: No, they are very accommodating.

Q: Can Doctors here in Harlan handle some of the procedures that most surgeons do?
A: Some not most, Dr. Klitgard does upper scopes and I preform lower scopes.

Q: Is finding a surgeon for Harlan the hospitals first priority?
A: Well I think so, we think it's important to have a surgeon in our community, and to have one for emergent procedures.

Q: Will having a surgeon in some of the other towns around Harlan help out our community?
A: Not really, it would be much easier to have our own, when Parikh was unable to come in we could sometimes get surgeons from Denison to come in and help but it's better for each community to have their own.

Q: What is it that might attract surgeons to Harlan and not other towns like Atlantic or Denison.
A: Well I suppose it's more attractive do to the well trained staff here in Harlan, so that person would have a lot more shared calls instead of doing everything by him or herself.

Q: What is the obsticle in recruiting a surgeon?
A: It's hard to attract sugeons away from the cities since their are much more shared calls in the city do to a larger staff and they become accustommed to city life and luxuries.

Q: How long do you think it will take to successfully recruit a surgeon here for Harlan?
A: It will at least be up to 6 months or year for that matter, you have to find someone that will help the community.


The towns of Atlantic, Denison, Shenandoah, Sheldon, Harlan, and others are looking for a surgen. It may be a while until we find a successful surgen for Harlan that can perminatly help the community. This interview was done by Markham1 and Seaman1.