Craig Daily Press

Craig — Dr. Joel Miller sits in a simple wooden chair in the front room of his new family practice clinic with his entire staff of two medical assistants.

He raps his fingers on the front desk.

He pulls out collected books on osteopathy, a medical practice that aligns a patient’s bones for optimal blood flow.

He points to Kristy Davis and Ashley Stuart, the assistants who have worked at the clinic since it opened March 1, and says nothing would be possible without their day-to-day and week-to-week hard work.

It’s a great feeling to run your own clinic, Miller said, of his High Country Medical at 535 Yampa Ave.

He worked with Dr. Thomas Told for five years before recently deciding he needed a change.

“But I really didn’t want to leave Craig,” Miller said. “The more I thought about it, I wanted to take care of my own patients.”

It’s not his first time runing a family practitioner clinic — he had a similar operation in Boulder before moving to Moffat County.

The people here need more family doctors, doctors who know their patients and can help them avoid mild and treatable conditions into something more serious, Miller said.

He added he hopes to expand his own clinic in the future to offset the coming losses of three general medicine physicians, including Told.

“Probably within three months we’ll need somebody else,” Miller said. “I’d like to at least get one other.”

Recruiting new physicians, however, has not always been easy for Craig clinics.

“I think, traditionally, it’s been a little bit harder to find physicians for Craig,” Miller said, although he noted he did not expect such a trying search.

Miller came here because he liked the person and doctor that Told is, he said. He expects to be able to offer the same working relationship and enjoyable office he found with Told.

“This is a really good office,” Miller said, “and it’ll be a good place to work.”

High Country Medical currently offers all general services from a family practitioner’s office — such as diagnoses and prescriptions — as well as Miller’s experience in osteopathic therapy.

The office also offers certain cosmetic surgeries, such as lesion removals, Miller said. In the future, he hopes to expand in-house surgeries to include vasectomies and possibly colonoscopies.

For more information or to set up an appointment, call High Country Medical at 824-6530.