As primary care providers we are often the first contact for patients with health care needs. Our knowledge and training help us to provide comprehensive medical care, health maintenance and preventive services. Because we work closely with patients on many medical and personal issues, we are positioned to serve as patient advocates and provide direction with use of specialists, health services, and community resources.

     Our practice primary care services include:

• Family Medicine: Patients ranging from infant to adult are seen by our practitioners for health maintenance or health problems. Don’t hesitate to call us for any health care need. We will work with you to bring you back to your personal best, or help you maintain health.
• Geriatrics: Today, people over 50 are more active, better informed, and more health conscious than in previous years. We encourage annual wellness visits as an important part of a comprehensive plan for health maintenance. We will review current medications, immunizations, and specialist referrals (if needed) during these visits. As with all patients, we encourage you to call us for any health care need.
• Behavioral Health: We want our patients to feel that they have come to the right place for any problem. We realize that treating the whole patient means treating the mind, body, and spirit. This holistic approach requires more time with each patient, and our small practice is designed with this in mind. We provide counseling for anxiety, depression, mental illness, and emotional disorders, in addition to careful referral as needed.
• Nutritional Counseling: Nutrition related diseases include hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer. These diseases could be avoided with healthy nutritional habits. We provide nutrition assessment and counseling and will help you to address your personal nutritional issues. We will make individualized recommendations, assist you with making a realistic plan.

     Heart disease, cancer and stroke are the most common causes of death in the United States, and more than one million people die each year as a direct result or indirectly by complications. Although they are sometimes linked to a family history of a disease, behavior also plays a key role in preventing these diseases. We believe that making healthy adjustments in our lives goes a long way toward disease prevention.

     Health Care Providers are here to provide you with age appropriate health promotion and screening recommendations to assist you with making decisions about improving or maintaining your health or the health of your family.

• David Olson, MD is board certified in public health and preventive medicine. This specialized training, in addition to his medical training and years of experience, provides him with the knowledge to educate his patients about healthier lifestyles.
  
• Shirley Olson, FNP provides a functional medicine approach. Working in partnership with a trained functional medicine provider, patients make dietary and activity changes that, when combined with nutrients targeted to specific functional needs, allow them to really be in charge of improving their own health and changing the outcome of disease. She may also prescribe drugs or botanical medicines or other nutraceuticals. She may suggest a detoxification protocol or a stress-management procedure.

     Health Promotion and Screening Services. Adults should have their weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels checked regularly. Diet, exercise and immunizations are often discussed during a visit, since these are key factors in both health promotion and disease prevention. After the age of 50, both men and women should be tested for colorectal cancer.

     As a very diverse group, women vary by age, culture, language, and geography. Sexual and reproductive health, sexually transmitted diseases, birth control and infertility, and post menopausal symptoms are often key issues. Women should have a variety of health care options for making informed choices when facing such issues. We are here to discuss the options, with an emphasis on preventative care.
     Some of our women’s health services and conditions treated include:

• Annual Wellness Exams
• Pap smears
• Contraception and pre-contraception counseling
• Hormone Balancing
• Nutrition Counseling

     Dr. Olson grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated with Highest Honors from the nation’s foremost prep school, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1973, with awards in writing, science, music, and American history.
     From 1973-1979, he attended the Six-Year Honors Program in Medical Education at Northwestern University in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, and graduated with a BS and an MD. He then completed his first year of family practice residency at Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver, became a licensed physician, and began practicing family medicine in Colorado in 1980 at the age of 25.
     With an interest in having a broader impact upon the way health care is delivered, Dr. Olson enrolled in the Executive MBA program at the University of Colorado in Denver in 1986 and graduated with an MBA in 1988. He continued practicing urgent care and family medicine in the Denver area until 1990, when he took a position as a Medical Director at a large multispecialty clinic in the Los Angeles area. Over the next year and a half he moved up through the organization, and in 1991 was recruited to Corpus Christi, Texas, by Humana Health Plans.
     For nine years, Dr. Olson oversaw health care delivery processes for almost 100,000 people in Corpus Christi. In 2000, he had an opportunity to move to his home town of Cleveland, where he worked as a Senior VP for a health care company and married Shirley! Together, they took care of his elderly mother in their home. After a pair of corporate downsizings, David’s job in Cleveland was eliminated and, during a trip to Colorado for a wedding in 2003, David and Shirley fell in love with the town of Ouray and decided to move here in 2004.
     The Olsons spent their first two years here working in real estate and putting sweat equity into their home. David also became involved in local music and theater projects, while Shirley also cared for David’s mom at home. After working temporary assignments in Montrose and in California throughout 2008, he and Shirley found their ideal practice location at 824 Main St. and began the build-out of their offices for Ouray Family Medicine in December.
     David and Shirley have five children between them, and one grandchild, as well as two dogs and two cats! Dr. Olson’s other interests include travel, music (piano, trumpet, voice, conducting), acting, automobile racing, restoration and repair, dogs, writing, flying, boating, hiking, skiing, bicycling, motorcycling, snowmobiling, carpentry, woodworking, plumbing, snow plowing, and electrical and electronics. He has been called “a true Renaissance Man.”
Education:
Phillips Exeter Academy, 1973, Highest Honors.
Northwestern University Medical School, Six-Year Honors Program, BS, MD, 1979.
Saint Joseph Hospital, Denver, Family Practice Residency PGY1, 1980.
University of Colorado, Denver, MBA, 1988.
Emory University, Graduate Studies in Public Health, 2000.
Medical Certifications:
American Board of Medical Specialties: American Board of Preventive Medicine, Board Certified in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine.
American and Colorado Academy of Family Physicians, Sustaining Member.
American College of Physician Executives, Life Member.
American Board of Quality and Utilization Review Physicians, Past Member.
Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Certified in 2008.

     I graduated from Beth-El College of Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Colorado, with a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree, and as a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP). I am Board Certified by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) and a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing.

     I am working to obtain board certification through The Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM). This program addresses one of the key issues in healthcare practice today – improving the management of complex, chronic disease. IFM programs utilize the emerging research base to identify effective interventions and to train health care providers to integrate those approaches for the benefit of their patients.

     The training involves understanding the etiology, prevention, and treatment of complex, chronic disease. It is an integrative, science-based healthcare approach that treats illness and promotes wellness by focusing assessment on the biochemically unique aspects of each patient, and then individually tailoring interventions to restore physiological, psychological and structural balance.

Lifestyle is a very big factor; research estimates that 70-90% of the risk of chronic disease is attributable to lifestyle. That means what you eat, how you exercise, what your spiritual practices are, how much stress you live with (and how you handle it) are all elements that must be addressed in a comprehensive approach.

     “…we have been able to identify modifiable behavioral factors, including specific aspects of diet, overweight, inactivity, and smoking that account for over 70% of stroke and colon cancer, over 80% of coronary heart disease, and over 90% of adult-onset diabetes.” [Willett, WC. Science, 2002:296, 695-697]

Working in partnership with a trained functional medicine provider, patients make dietary and activity changes that, when combined with nutrients targeted to specific functional needs, allow them to really be in charge of improving their own health and changing the outcome of disease.

I may also prescribe drugs or botanical medicines or other nutraceuticals; I may suggest a detoxification protocol, a physical medicine intervention, or a stress-management procedure. The good news is: when you look at functionality, you uncover many different ways of attacking problems — you are not limited to the “drug of choice for condition X.”

     I have studied nutrition extensively through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

     During my training, I studied over 100 dietary theories, practical lifestyle management techniques, and innovative coaching methods with some of the world’s top health and wellness experts. My teachers included Dr. Andrew Weil, Director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine; Dr. Deepak Chopra, leader in the field of mind-body medicine; Dr. David Katz, Director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center; Dr. Walter Willett, Chair of Nutrition at Harvard University; Geneen Roth, bestselling author and expert on emotional eating; and many other leading researchers and nutrition authorities.

My education has equipped me with extensive knowledge in holistic nutrition and preventive health. Drawing on these skills and my knowledge of nutrition and functional medicine, I work with patients to help them make lifestyle changes that produce real and lasting results.

     David and Shirley have a combined family of five adult children, one grandchild, two dogs and two cats! Shirley’s other interests include hiking, skiing, gardening, reading, yoga, pilates, weight lifting, and cooking. She mostly loves being with family and good friends.

What is a nurse practitioner?

• Taking the patient's history
• Performing a physical exam, and ordering appropriate laboratory tests and procedures
• Diagnosing, treating, and managing acute and chronic diseases
• Providing prescriptions and coordinating referrals and promoting healthy activities in collaboration with the patient.
  (Source: Adapted from U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health)
• Although we consult with physicians as appropriate, in the state of Colorado, Nurse Practitioners are independent health care providers.

Now accepting the following insurance:
United Health Plans
Anthem/Blue Cross Blue Shield
Rocky Mountain Health Plans
Aetna/Cofinity Network
Medicare
Humana/First Health Network
Child Health Plan Plus(CHP+)
Medicaid
CIGNA/Great West/PHCS/Multiplan Network

If you don't see your insurance listed, please call and let us know what it is. (970)325-9900

Hours:

Location:

824 Main St.
Ouray, CO

Tel:  (970) 325-9900
Fax:  (970) 325-7336

Send an unregistered, secure message

     As primary care providers we are often the first contact for patients with health care needs. Our knowledge and training help us to provide comprehensive medical care, health maintenance and preventive services. Because we work closely with patients on many medical and personal issues, we are positioned to serve as patient advocates and provide direction with use of specialists, health services, and community resources.

     Our practice primary care services include:

• Family Medicine: Patients ranging from infant to adult are seen by our practitioners for health maintenance or health problems. Don’t hesitate to call us for any health care need. We will work with you to bring you back to your personal best, or help you maintain health.
• Geriatrics: Today, people over 50 are more active, better informed, and more health conscious than in previous years. We encourage annual wellness visits as an important part of a comprehensive plan for health maintenance. We will review current medications, immunizations, and specialist referrals (if needed) during these visits. As with all patients, we encourage you to call us for any health care need.
• Behavioral Health: We want our patients to feel that they have come to the right place for any problem. We realize that treating the whole patient means treating the mind, body, and spirit. This holistic approach requires more time with each patient, and our small practice is designed with this in mind. We provide counseling for anxiety, depression, mental illness, and emotional disorders, in addition to careful referral as needed.
• Nutritional Counseling: Nutrition related diseases include hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer. These diseases could be avoided with healthy nutritional habits. We provide nutrition assessment and counseling and will help you to address your personal nutritional issues. We will make individualized recommendations, assist you with making a realistic plan.

     Heart disease, cancer and stroke are the most common causes of death in the United States, and more than one million people die each year as a direct result or indirectly by complications. Although they are sometimes linked to a family history of a disease, behavior also plays a key role in preventing these diseases. We believe that making healthy adjustments in our lives goes a long way toward disease prevention.

     Health Care Providers are here to provide you with age appropriate health promotion and screening recommendations to assist you with making decisions about improving or maintaining your health or the health of your family.

• David Olson, MD is board certified in public health and preventive medicine. This specialized training, in addition to his medical training and years of experience, provides him with the knowledge to educate his patients about healthier lifestyles.
  
• Susan Rahn, FNP will provide valuable services such as working closely with you to individualize your medical regimen, prevention and screening counseling, health-promotion, and health education in combination with the knowledge and use of community resources.
  
• Shirley Olson, FNP provides a functional medicine approach. Working in partnership with a trained functional medicine provider, patients make dietary and activity changes that, when combined with nutrients targeted to specific functional needs, allow them to really be in charge of improving their own health and changing the outcome of disease. She may also prescribe drugs or botanical medicines or other nutraceuticals. She may suggest a detoxification protocol or a stress-management procedure.

     Health Promotion and Screening Services. Adults should have their weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels checked regularly. Diet, exercise and immunizations are often discussed during a visit, since these are key factors in both health promotion and disease prevention. After the age of 50, both men and women should be tested for colorectal cancer.

     As a very diverse group, women vary by age, culture, language, and geography. Sexual and reproductive health, sexually transmitted diseases, birth control and infertility, and post menopausal symptoms are often key issues. Women should have a variety of health care options for making informed choices when facing such issues. We are here to discuss the options, with an emphasis on preventative care.
     Some of our women’s health services and conditions treated include:

• Annual Wellness Exams
• Pap smears
• Contraception and pre-contraception counseling
• Hormone Balancing
• Nutrition Counseling

     Dr. Olson grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated with Highest Honors from the nation’s foremost prep school, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1973, with awards in writing, science, music, and American history.
     From 1973-1979, he attended the Six-Year Honors Program in Medical Education at Northwestern University in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, and graduated with a BS and an MD. He then completed his first year of family practice residency at Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver, became a licensed physician, and began practicing family medicine in Colorado in 1980 at the age of 25.
     With an interest in having a broader impact upon the way health care is delivered, Dr. Olson enrolled in the Executive MBA program at the University of Colorado in Denver in 1986 and graduated with an MBA in 1988. He continued practicing urgent care and family medicine in the Denver area until 1990, when he took a position as a Medical Director at a large multispecialty clinic in the Los Angeles area. Over the next year and a half he moved up through the organization, and in 1991 was recruited to Corpus Christi, Texas, by Humana Health Plans.
     For nine years, Dr. Olson oversaw health care delivery processes for almost 100,000 people in Corpus Christi. In 2000, he had an opportunity to move to his home town of Cleveland, where he worked as a Senior VP for a health care company and married Shirley! Together, they took care of his elderly mother in their home. After a pair of corporate downsizings, David’s job in Cleveland was eliminated and, during a trip to Colorado for a wedding in 2003, David and Shirley fell in love with the town of Ouray and decided to move here in 2004.
     The Olsons spent their first two years here working in real estate and putting sweat equity into their home. David also became involved in local music and theater projects, while Shirley also cared for David’s mom at home. After working temporary assignments in Montrose and in California throughout 2008, he and Shirley found their ideal practice location at 824 Main St. and began the build-out of their offices for Ouray Family Medicine in December.
     David and Shirley have five children between them, and one grandchild, as well as two dogs and two cats! Dr. Olson’s other interests include travel, music (piano, trumpet, voice, conducting), acting, automobile racing, restoration and repair, dogs, writing, flying, boating, hiking, skiing, bicycling, motorcycling, snowmobiling, carpentry, woodworking, plumbing, snow plowing, and electrical and electronics. He has been called “a true Renaissance Man.”
Education:
Phillips Exeter Academy, 1973, Highest Honors.
Northwestern University Medical School, Six-Year Honors Program, BS, MD, 1979.
Saint Joseph Hospital, Denver, Family Practice Residency PGY1, 1980.
University of Colorado, Denver, MBA, 1988.
Emory University, Graduate Studies in Public Health, 2000.
Medical Certifications:
American Board of Medical Specialties: American Board of Preventive Medicine, Board Certified in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine.
American and Colorado Academy of Family Physicians, Sustaining Member.
American College of Physician Executives, Life Member.
American Board of Quality and Utilization Review Physicians, Past Member.
Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Certified in 2008.

     I graduated from Beth-El College of Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Colorado, with a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree, and as a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP). I am Board Certified by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) and a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing.

     I am working to obtain board certification through The Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM). This program addresses one of the key issues in healthcare practice today – improving the management of complex, chronic disease. IFM programs utilize the emerging research base to identify effective interventions and to train health care providers to integrate those approaches for the benefit of their patients.

     The training involves understanding the etiology, prevention, and treatment of complex, chronic disease. It is an integrative, science-based healthcare approach that treats illness and promotes wellness by focusing assessment on the biochemically unique aspects of each patient, and then individually tailoring interventions to restore physiological, psychological and structural balance.

Lifestyle is a very big factor; research estimates that 70-90% of the risk of chronic disease is attributable to lifestyle. That means what you eat, how you exercise, what your spiritual practices are, how much stress you live with (and how you handle it) are all elements that must be addressed in a comprehensive approach.

     “…we have been able to identify modifiable behavioral factors, including specific aspects of diet, overweight, inactivity, and smoking that account for over 70% of stroke and colon cancer, over 80% of coronary heart disease, and over 90% of adult-onset diabetes.” [Willett, WC. Science, 2002:296, 695-697]

Working in partnership with a trained functional medicine provider, patients make dietary and activity changes that, when combined with nutrients targeted to specific functional needs, allow them to really be in charge of improving their own health and changing the outcome of disease.

I may also prescribe drugs or botanical medicines or other nutraceuticals; I may suggest a detoxification protocol, a physical medicine intervention, or a stress-management procedure. The good news is: when you look at functionality, you uncover many different ways of attacking problems — you are not limited to the “drug of choice for condition X.”

     I have studied nutrition extensively through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

     During my training, I studied over 100 dietary theories, practical lifestyle management techniques, and innovative coaching methods with some of the world’s top health and wellness experts. My teachers included Dr. Andrew Weil, Director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine; Dr. Deepak Chopra, leader in the field of mind-body medicine; Dr. David Katz, Director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center; Dr. Walter Willett, Chair of Nutrition at Harvard University; Geneen Roth, bestselling author and expert on emotional eating; and many other leading researchers and nutrition authorities.

My education has equipped me with extensive knowledge in holistic nutrition and preventive health. Drawing on these skills and my knowledge of nutrition and functional medicine, I work with patients to help them make lifestyle changes that produce real and lasting results.

     David and Shirley have a combined family of five adult children, one grandchild, two dogs and two cats! Shirley’s other interests include hiking, skiing, gardening, reading, yoga, pilates, weight lifting, and cooking. She mostly loves being with family and good friends.

What is a nurse practitioner?

• Taking the patient's history
• Performing a physical exam, and ordering appropriate laboratory tests and procedures
• Diagnosing, treating, and managing acute and chronic diseases
• Providing prescriptions and coordinating referrals and promoting healthy activities in collaboration with the patient.
  (Source: Adapted from U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health)
• Although we consult with physicians as appropriate, in the state of Colorado, Nurse Practitioners are independent health care providers.

Now accepting the following insurance:
United Health Plans
Anthem/Blue Cross Blue Shield
Rocky Mountain Health Plans
Aetna/Cofinity Network
Medicare
Humana/First Health Network
Child Health Plan Plus(CHP+)
Medicaid
CIGNA/Great West/PHCS/Multiplan Network

If you don't see your insurance listed, please call and let us know what it is. (970)325-9900

Hours:
Monday through Friday
9:00 am to 5:00 pm

Closed for Lunch
12:00 pm to 2:00 pm

Location:
1801 East Pavilion Place
Montrose, CO 81401

Tel:  (970) 249-6670

Send an unregistered, secure message