Augenstein goes into private practice

Dr. Nick Augenstein goes over a patients chart at the Pitts Medical Group offices in Grants. Augenstein is is leaving the Pitts Medical Group to start his own medical practice. [Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Dr. Nick Augenstein, an internal medicine physician in Grants for the past several years, is leaving the Pitts Medical Group and forming his own private practice.

Beginning June 5, Augenstein will start seeing patients at the Good Samaritan Center, 840 Lobo Canyon Road.

His wife, Sue, a nurse who helped him in private practice on the east coast for many years prior to coming to Grants, will join him in the clinic as his office manager, he said.

"A good opportunity presented itself," Augenstein said. He is the medical director for Good Samaritan, and by making this move, it will allow him to be available when he is in the clinic, should any of the inpatients at the center need a doctor immediately.

When other doctors admit patients to the facility, he is available on-call when those doctors are on vacation or off, he said.

Prior to Grants, he was in private practice from 1976 to 2000, in Chesapeake, Va.

"I have been thinking about returning to private practice for some time, or retiring," he said. "There is a lot to be said for being in a sole practice, being the only physician.

"It allows me the freedom in the direction of the practice," he said.

It is an opportunity to continue to serve those patients at the center and in the public rather than retire, he said.

"In all actuality, we (local physicians) all run individual practices, and we all occasionally see other physician's patients ," he said.

"I much prefer a sole practice," he said. "It allows me to have my own staff and the opportunity to make changes if I want."

"I have always been happy in Grants. One situation that will be resolved for Good Samaritan is fewer emergency room trips for the inpatients there," he said.

The plan is to use a special computerized telephone system that takes messages when he is not holding clinic, and he said he will check that system several times a day on weekends and other days.

It allows him the ability to dial in and get messages any time day or night, "And we'll go from there. I'll call people back that day," he said.

Augenstein said he has seen several hundred different patients in the Grants area and welcomes all patients to see him in his new clinic.

"It's a privilege to serve Grants and Cibola County," he said.

"Everything will be the same (as far as medical care is concerned), I'll just be in a different location," he said.

Augenstein's clinic hours, at least initially, will be 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Tuesdays;, 9 a.m.-noon, Wednesdays; and 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Thursdays.

The new telephone number, given to him by Qwest is (505) 287-2772. It will be installed and working by the time his office opens, he said.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin, call (505) 287-2197 or e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.