Good Shepherd Health Care System (GSHCS) recently welcomed Dr. Stewart Swena to Good Shepherd Urgent Care.
Swena joined Drs. Buck, Carlson, Johnson, Trask and Irma Mendoza, FNP, in the Urgent Care, 1050 W. Elm Avenue in Hermiston. Urgent Care is open seven days a week, while also seeing patients for primary care Monday through Thursday.
Swena came to the Hermiston community many years ago after his neighbor in Chehalis, Wash., connected him to an opportunity here with Dr. Douglas Flaiz. Swena’s neighbor is the son of Dr. Milt Johnson, a longtime Hermiston physician
After working his own private solo practice in Hermiston for some time, he began working in Good Shepherd’s Emergency Department for close to 10 years. He decided recently that he wanted to exchange the irregularity of the ER shifts to focus on his own family medicine and lifestyle medicine practice at Good Shepherd Urgent Care.
Board Certified both in family medicine and lifestyle medicine, Swena has more than 20 years of primary care experience. He completed his residency at Florida Hospital Medical Center in Family Practice after obtaining his Doctor of Medicine from Loma Linda University School of Medicine.
“Primary care is an important part of the health of a community,” said Swena. “Caring for patients in my primary care practice while also seeing patients in Good Shepherd Urgent Care is similar to how Dr. Joseph Gifford saw patients before his retirement.”
“With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, when you look at the risk factors for severe disease and chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, coronary disease, COPD; all of those can be helped significantly and in some cases reversed with lifestyle medicine,” he said. “More than 99 percent of patients that died from COVID-19 have at least one of those chronic diseases or risk factors when they are over the age of 65, which really can take a toll on people’s health leading to disabilities and early death. This inspired me to get back into primary care and help my patients to better health with lifestyle medicine,” he stated.
To schedule an appointment with Dr. Swena, call 541-567-2995 or go online. Good Shepherd Urgent Care accepts walk-ins and is open seven days a week. Dr. Swena’s primary care practice is open Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to noon, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
