Primary Care Providers

Our Primary Care Providers are:

• Rapid City Haines Location: Charice Suomala, CNP
• Rapid City Mt. View Location: Danielle Shafer, PA-C

To schedule an appointment, please call (605) 791-7799.

Why Choose a Primary Care Provider?

Continuity of Care: In the short term, continuity of care dramatically increases the likelihood that you’ll receive a correct diagnosis and appropriate treatment. The best diagnostic test available to a doctor is the test of time. Your primary care provider gains valuable information from tracking a problem over time – whether for a week, two weeks, or a month – and can make treatment decisions accordingly. Consider this: If you go to the ER with a problem, the providers don’t expect they’ll ever see you again, so they’re likely to order extra tests and treatments to cover all the possible bases at once.

Over the long term, a provider who knows your health history, your habits, and your personality can more easily recognize signs that indicate a potential change in your health. For example, if you complain of fatigue to a doctor who doesn’t know you, you might not be taken seriously – but your primary care doctor will be able to see that you aren’t your usual self. That same provider will be able to reassure you when you’re not sick – they’ll know that the mole you’re worried about on your back isn’t a problem because it hasn’t changed in the six years they’ve observed it.

One Point Person: If you need to see a specialist, our experienced primary care providers will refer you to someone they know and with whom they have a collaborative relationship. If you have concerns about getting different suggestions from different specialists, your primary care provider can help you sort through and prioritize which suggestions to act on first. This is the concept that’s known as the ‘medical home.’ Your primary care provider has a working relationship with their referrals and keeps track of your care with them. We have streamlined access to specialists and can help you

Save time down the line: Setting up a relationship with a consistent provider can help you get care more quickly should you get sick in the future–whether it’s a pesky sinus infection or something more serious. When you’ve established care and set up that relationship, it’s much easier for us to help you down the line. We know your history, we know more about you, we can even help you resolve things over the phone or via email sometimes.

Prevent Future Illness: Setting up a relationship with a consistent provider can help you get care more quickly should you get sick in the future – whether it’s a pesky sinus infection or something more serious. When you’ve established care and set up that relationship, it’s much easier for us to help you down the line. We know your history, we know more about you, we can even help you resolve things over the phone or even email on occasion.

Our Providers