GILLETTE, Wyo. — Physician assistant Seth Taylor said he is excited to bring more orthopedic services to Gillette through a clinic that has been expanding over the past couple of years: Dr. Joseph McGinley’s.
Taylor said at a ribbon-cutting Nov. 6 that the McGinley family loves Wyoming and believes high school athletes deserve the same level of care as they provide to Formula 1 drivers.
While Jen Pierce, the Gillette office manager and a radiology technician, has been able to provide X-ray services at the office, 407 S. Medical Arts Court, Suite E2, since January, the office still only had clinical services once a week and procedures once a month, McGinley said. If patients needed injections, they typically needed to go to Casper. Taylor, on the other hand, lives in Gillette and will be in the office every day, full-time. McGinley will routinely do procedures with Taylor, too.
Taylor graduated from Marietta College in Ohio in July with a master of science in physician assistant studies, according to The Marietta Times.
He also has a bachelor of science in health sciences from the college, according to the clinic’s website. Taylor was a combat medic in the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division in Fort Polk, Louisiana. He deployed to Afghanistan. He was a company medic for West Point and a line medic for the CAV.
The McGinley Clinic is a minimally invasive orthopedic practice that can treat simple injuries, chronic pain and complex sports issues, McGinley said. If the clinic is not able to assist with a given orthopedic or pain issue, it will refer people to specialists in its national network and get them set up with a surgeon within 24 hours, rather than a patient needing to navigate a major hospital system for weeks.
“We see some very unique problems that there’s only maybe two or three surgeons worldwide that take care of those problems,” McGinley said. “We have access to those facilities.”
Minimally invasive orthopedics is a rapidly growing area of medicine because technology is allowing the tools the medical professionals use to become smaller and smaller, he said. A lot of procedures are needle-driven and catheter-driven. For example, carpal tunnel release can be done in less than five minutes, without stitches, sedation or general anesthesia.
“We just do local lidocaine right at the area of the hand and we slide a catheter under the ligament and we can cut it from underneath,” he said. “The patient’s awake the entire time. That’s changing that particular procedure, but we’re seeing that across the board in orthopedics.”
Taylor said they use ultrasound guidance for the procedures.
McGinley said the clinic has begun performing “trigger finger” release, and it is the first site worldwide performing that procedure for the thumb, which is much more complex. The clinic is writing protocols for the company to get approval nationally for other doctors.
“It’s really exciting to be at that cutting edge. We get access to all types of technologies and toys now at a much earlier stage, because people know we’re able to work with them and innovate and come out with the best treatments available for patients,” he said.
Regardless of the complexity of a patient’s procedure, the office continuously follows up on outcomes, according to McGinley.
“If you come in for a simple cortisone injection of your knee, we’ll call you for up to a year after that procedure and make sure it’s going well,” he said. “And if it’s not, we try to figure out why, we try to change those treatments. So every single patient we see, nothing’s too small or too big. We follow up continuously. That helps us with patient relationships as well as [improving] our practice.”
To learn more about the office, call 866-678-4699 or visit www.themcginleyclinic.com.
