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Lab Manager Sherrie Wick working in the lab on site at the new Skin Care Center of Southern Illinois Glen Carbon location.
(From left to right) Kelly MacArthur, Mohs Surgeon, George Nahass, Dermatologist, Kari Sufficool, Dermatopathologist and Robert Schnietz, Dermatologist.
A surgical area in the new Skin Care Center of Southern Illinois Glen Carbon clinic.
An exam room in the new Skin Care Center of Southern Illinois Glen Carbon clinic.
An open house was held March 31 for the Skin Care Center of Southern Illinois (SCC) at 4575 Benes St., Glen Carbon.
The clinic has been open since Feb. 28; by June it will be open five days a week for general dermatology. The clinic provides medical, surgical and cosmetic dermatology to patients.
“We’re thrilled to be in the community,” said Chief Operating Officer Lisa Shoults Belflower. “Our philosophy is to always create a highly satisfying patient experience, and we take pride in that with each visit for our patients.”
The clinic is not all inclusive, but some patient diagnoses and treatments include rash, eczema, psoriasis, warts, annual skin checks, skin cancer, excisions, Mohs surgery, cosmetic neurotoxins and dermal fillers.
SCC clinics are also located in Mt. Vernon, Centralia and Nashville Illinois. The Glen Carbon clinic is medically directed by Dr. George Nahass, a long-time southern Illinois board-certified dermatologist and dermatopathologist.
“I believe strongly in the mission statement, and I am hopeful and believe that we will bring that mission and fulfill it here,” said Nahass. “And the mission statement is: to provide the highest quality medical, surgical and cosmetic derm services equivalent to anything you can get anywhere else in the country, including St. Louis.”
Nahass said the mission is to deliver that excellence in care in the community as well as to be embedded in the community because that provides what he believes to be the most valuable aspect of healthcare: continuity.
“There’s no substitute for continuity,” Nahass said. “The patient knowing the doctor and the doctor knowing the patient. We want to bring that excellence in care to the community and provide it in a continual way, and in a patient-centered way.
“When that happens, the care is of the highest quality,” Nahass said. “And so that’s our commitment to this area, and I believe this practice will fulfill that commitment.”
SCC patients at the new Glen Carbon clinic will also have the opportunity to receive care from board-certified Dermatologist Dr. Robert Schnietz, Board-certified Mohs Surgeon Dr. Kelly MacArthur and Cosmetic RN Mary McKaig.
“I grew up in Edwardsville and did my training in Springfield, Illinois, so for me, it’s exciting to get to practice in the place that I grew up,” said Schnietz. “For many years there’s been a need for general dermatology and for Mohs as well. Dr. Nahass in Mt. Vernon has been offering care for Central and Southern Illinois for many years and I think it’s just exciting to get to continue that tradition here in the Metro East.”
Sherrie Wick, lab manager at the Glen Carbon clinic, said not many clinics have a lab on site and have to send specimens to large hospitals.
“Sometimes when you have locations that are only sending to these large hospitals that have a thousand specimens a day, you don’t get the turnaround time that we do on site here,” Wick said. “That person might come get a biopsy on Monday, and by Thursday they’re already getting Mohs, and in one week or less than a week, they can be cancer free. So that’s a big benefit of having it on site here, with the right lab staff and pathologist on site.”
SCC Glen Carbon offers Mohs surgery, a layer-type surgery that can remove skin cancer from a patient without creating a large incision. It involves removing the smallest amount of specimen possible.
“If somebody has a biopsy and it does come back that it has cancer and it’s at a certain area of the body, that can qualify for Mohs,” Wick said. “What Mohs does is, the patient is sitting there in the room and we remove what we think is a good border. We test it, and if there’s still an area that still has cancer, that patient is still here so they can go back and remove it. So that patient leaves here not having skin cancer anymore.”
“It’s just a better way because they only take what they need and then the physician closes it to make sure that the skin looks nice,” said Shoults Belflower.
For more about the SCC Glen Carbon visit www.skincarecenterderm.com.
