Plastic surgeon now serves Tri Valley on monthly basis

Friday, May 30, 2014
Dr. Kenneth Fischer

CAMBRIDGE, Nebraska -- Those in need of plastic and reconstructive surgery in Southwest Nebraska can now be served close to home by a visiting specialist at Tri Valley Health Services in Cambridge.

Starting in April and continuing on a monthly basis, Dr. Kenneth Fischer will be coming to the hospital in Cambridge to consult with patients and to do surgeries.

It's a new outreach for Dr. Fischer, who previously centered his medical practice in Manhattan, Kansas. The change came when Dr. Fischer was approached by a friend, Josh Hill, who is a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthesiologist on the Tri Valley staff.

"There's a need for what you do here," Hill said. Intrigued, Dr. Fischer checked it out and entered into negotiations with Tri Valley Health System. Once all arrangements were made, an agreement was reached and Dr. Fischer began seeing patients Wednesday, April 30. He was back for his second clinic visit Wednesday, May 28, and will schedule future visits towards the end of each month.

A wide range of plastic, cosmetic and reconstructive surgeries will be offered, Dr. Fischer said. In rural areas -- like western Kansas and Nebraska -- Dr. Fischer said the skills of a plastic and reconstructive surgeon are often needed because of accidents, whether those be automobile crashes, on-the-farm mishaps or work-related injuries.

At his practice in Kansas, Dr. Fischer does a lot of cosmetic surgery, breast surgery and hand surgery. Most of the hand surgery is trauma related, he said.

Dr. Fischer went on to explain that the word plastic in plastic surgery comes from plastico, which means to mold. "In large part, that's what we do," Dr. Fischer said: "We mold and we reconstruct." Among the plastic surgery procedures offered by Dr. Fischer are face lifts, liposuction, breast augmentation, breast reduction, tummy tucks (called abdominoplasty) and nose reconstruction (called rhinoplasty).

Several years ago, offering medical surgery procedures at a distant location would had been more difficult. But now, thanks to advances in telemedicine, visual follow-up is much easier to access. Using his I-phone or a computer and a secure line, Dr. Fischer can now access views of patients' plastic surgery progress from afar. At Tri Valley Health System, he is assisted in this visual process by Alysia Mowry, a Physician Assistant-Certified, who is working closely with him on plastic and reconstructive surgery consultations.

Among the reasons Dr. Fischer enjoys his association with Tri Valley Health System in Cambridge is that it returns him to his Nebraska roots. Long-time Nebraskans -- especially Cornhusker football fans -- are familiar with the Fischer family name. That's because Dr. Kenneth's father, Rex, and his uncles, Pat, Kenny and Cletis, made a name for themselves as Nebraska football players and coaches.

To this day, despite moving to Kansas for his father's military service and attending college at Oklahoma University, Dr. Fischer remains a loyal Husker fan. "I wasn't big enough or fast enough to play football for the Huskers so I wrestled for four years at the University of Oklahoma." He also made a decision to follow in his father's footsteps to become a physician.

Following his years at Oklahoma, Kenneth attended medical school at the University of Kansas. He went forward from there to do general surgery in Denver before completing his plastic surgery studies at the University of Mississippi. Since 2001, he has operated The Plastic Surgery Clinic in Manhattan and now, in addition, he will be serving the plastic and reconstructive surgery needs of patients at Tri Valley Health System in Cambridge.

Roger Steinkruger, the CEO at Tri Valley Health System, said, "We're pleased to welcome Dr. Fischer to our medical staff. As a board certified plastic surgeon and hand surgeon, he brings a vast array of services to Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas."

Information about Dr. Fischer is available by going to his website: www.drkennyfischer.com, or by calling his clinic in Manhattan, 785-776-7500, or Tri Valley Health System in Cambridge, 308-697-3329.

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