For immediate release: July 25, 2007

Contact:  Emily Wofford Cobb
Communications Manager
775-784-6006
ecobb@medicine.nevada.edu

School of Medicine holds monthly obstetrics clinics in Yerington

Clinics allow patients to receive routine obstetrical care

 without traveling great distances

RENO, Nev.—Each month for the past seven years physicians from the University of Nevada School of Medicine Department of Family and Community Medicine in Reno travel to Yerington to provide prenatal care to rural patients.  The monthly clinics allow patients in the Yerington area to receive routine prenatal care without traveling great distances to visit a physician. 

“It’s important for all expectant mothers to receive routine prenatal care,” says Catherine McCarthy, M.D., Yerington Obstetrics Clinic director and assistant professor of Family and Community Medicine.  “Currently, there are no physicians practicing obstetrics in Yerington, so this program offers prenatal care to patients who might otherwise have difficulty in obtaining or accessing care.”

Clinics are held the second Tuesday of each month from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the South Lyon Medical Center.  Routine prenatal care, including ultrasounds, is provided at all clinics which are attended by at least one faculty physician and two resident physicians.  Physicians may provide referrals to patients requiring specialized prenatal care and screening.

The school’s physicians, who see patients through University Health System, the clinical practice of the University of Nevada School of Medicine, deliver approximately 25 babies each year through the Yerington Obstetrics Clinic program.  All babies are delivered at Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno. 

The Yerington Obstetrics Clinic program funding is made possible through the School of Medicine’s Center for Education Health Services Outreach through a state appropriation for the Rural Obstetrical Access Program.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, call 877-UHS-PHYS or 775-463-2348 ext. 1.

As the state’s only public medical school, the University of Nevada School of Medicine has been meeting statewide healthcare, educational, and clinical needs since 1969.  The School of Medicine encompasses 16 clinical medical education departments, including Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Internal Medicine, Surgery, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, as well as five nationally-recognized departments within basic science including microbiology and biomedical engineering.  As the largest multi-specialty healthcare focus within the state, the School of Medicine employs more than 185 doctors who both teach and practice medicine throughout Nevada.  The school’s statewide faculty physician practice group has a combined 25 different medical specialties with seven physician practice offices located in the Reno-Sparks area and five physician offices located in Las Vegas.

The University of Nevada School of Medicine utilizes a best-practice approach to medicine and is committed to addressing the health needs of Nevada now and in the future. For more information, please visit www.medicine.nevada.edu.

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