Pair of family physicians commit to hospital, clinics

By Jan Schultz
The Imperial Republican
    Administrators and board members at Chase County Community Hospital received a pair of Christmas presents that will soon be shared with the community.
    Two new family practice physicians signed contracts this month to begin practicing at the hospital and clinics in mid-March.
    Dr. James Kerr and Dr. Kayla Luhrs will soon be serving residents of Chase County and the area, said CEO Abby Cyboron.
    Dr. Kerr was contracted earlier this month while Dr. Luhrs just committed last week.
    “We have an outstanding staff, and we’re excited to add to that,” Cyboron said Tuesday.
    “We are so excited to have them coming.”
    While the hospital has been contracting with a physicians recruiting firm to fill its two family practice openings, both doctors actually signed on outside of that, Cyboron noted.
    Dr. Kerr of Yankton, South Dakota had been traveling here to serve as a locum tenens physician, she said, filling in on several weekends in May and June and then a number of 7-day stretches since July. Those stretches will continue through February, when he’ll transition as a full-time employee of the hospital, she added.
    Dr. Luhrs has family ties in Imperial, and will be moving here from Alaska, Cyboron said.
    She is the granddaughter of Mary Luhrs and a niece of Tom and Lynn Luhrs, all of Imperial. Her parents are John Luhrs of Lawrence, Kansas and Krista D’Angelo, who lives in Maui.
    One of her two sisters is a family physician in Juneau, Alaska, and the other lives in Germany, she said.
    Cyboron said Dr. Luhrs sent a letter of interest about the open physician position in October, and visited family in December.
    While here Dec. 4-12, she actually worked a few days at the hospital, “to get a feel for what it’s like here,” Cyboron said.
    Some meet and greets were also held, she noted.
    Dr. Luhrs grew up in Alaska salmon fishing and berry picking in the coastal island town of Ketchikan, Alaska, reads her resume.
    She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in zoology/physiology from the University of Wyoming in 2008, then her Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle in 2012.
    She became board-certified in Family Medicine in 2015 and has several additional certifications.
    She currently is a full-time staff physician at Petersburg Medical Center in Alaska, providing outpatient, inpatient and emergency services.
    Dr. Kerr will be moving here from Yankton, and is acquainted with much of the medical staff already due to his locum tenens here.
    “We’ve had so many compliments about him,” Cyboron said.
    She is pleased he’ll be here on a full-time basis starting mid-March.
    Dr. Kerr will bring 38 years of medical experience to Chase County.
    After selling his private practice in 2011, Dr. Kerr has worked mostly as a locum since, Cyboron noted, but also maintains a cash-pay private practice in Yankton.
    His medical degree was earned at Texas Tech University, and has served as ER Medical Director at Sacred Heart Hospital in Yankton, has been an EMS Medical Director for Yankton County and Chief of the Medical Staff, also at Sacred Heart Hospital.
    He is licensed in Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, and also holds a number of other medical certifications.
    His wife, Jennifer, is a Nurse Practitioner. They have four children ages 13 to 17.
    Cyboron said with two family physicians coming on board soon, the two openings for doctors at the hospital and clinics are now filled.
    They will join Chase County’s other family physician Dr. David Younger, M.D., along with Brandy Hanes, APRN, and Physician Assistants Jodi Spady and Nicole Havel.