Integrative medicine clinic opens up in Idaho Falls
A new health clinic in Idaho Falls is garnering a lot of attention throughout eastern Idaho. The Healing Sanctuary is utilizing integrative medicine and naturopathic medicine to enhance a patient’s overall health. The clinic is lead by Dr. Jeffrey Baker M.D.- He’s worked as an OB/GYN for decades in Idaho Falls and after many years decided to go off and follow through with a dream he’s had forever.
“It’s kind of been my sideline for the last 10 years,” said Baker.
The Healing Sanctuary is currently in a temporary location on Sunnyside and Woodruff in Idaho Falls. Another unique element of the clinic is that it will move into the old ward building on 13th St. The renovation should be completed within the next few months. Baker, along with CEO Stephen Loosli, are eager to get into the restored historical building.
“We’re just thrilled with the demand, and fortunately, this temporary building allows us to grow a little more and hopefully we’ll be moving out of this space by June,” said Loosli.
Not only will The Healing Sanctuary be utilizing a historical building in Idaho Falls, the clinic has also contributed to growth economically, Within the first couple of weeks of opening, they had to add another staff member to keep up with the demand, and they believe more jobs will be added in the near future with the growth they’ve seen.
Baker says there are a lot of plans in the works, including cooking classes- and yoga classes, in addition to the services they’re currently offering such as massage therapy, naturopathic medicine, and chiropractic care.
The Healing Sanctuary is a primary care provider and accepts most insurance plans. Patients will have to check with their insurance to understand what services are and are not covered in their plans.
Naturopathic Licensing Struggle
While the excitement is growing for the Healing Sanctuary, there is struggle for naturopathic physicians in the state of Idaho. Currently, there’s not a licensing program in place. For the last several years, a group called the Idaho Chapter of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians has worked to get a licensing program in place.
Karen Bender, N.D. with The Healing Sanctuary is new to Idaho. She moved to the area to work for the Healing Sanctuary and is a recent graduate of the naturopathic doctorate program at Bastyr University in Seattle, WA. Currently, there are only five universities in the nation that offer training similar to what Bender received.
“It’s important to have a distinguished licensing and understanding of what that is, ” said Bender.
For Bender, she believes having some sort of licensing in place is necessary for the credibility of her training.
“For the consumer they want to know what they’re buying, and so if the same term is used to describe somebody who’s gone to have medical training with clinical training done two years of the basic sciences and two years of supervised medical care compared to someone who’s gone to a community college course or done a few online courses, the training is simply just not the same,” said Bender.
The legislation has not been printed yet. The IAANP is working to present it to the legislature within the next month. There are about a dozen doctors in the entire state of Idaho who have graduated from the accredited programs. A long history leads up to the current efforts of creating a license program.
