Reisinger to Expand Clinic Services

Michele Reisinger, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC at Community Healthcare System (CHCS), is expanding her practice to include mental health medication management services. Reisinger recently earned her PMHNP-BC national board certification and is now dually accredited to offer psychiatric mental health medication management services in conjunction with her family nurse practitioner practice.

As a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Board Certified (PMNNP-BC) practitioner, Reisinger is able to expand services targeted at the provision of foundational behavioral health guidance and medication management services across the lifespan. Reisinger said her interest in obtaining her PMHNP-BC certification sparked as a result of the increase in patients she was seeing due to mental health issues through her family medicine practice. “I saw first-hand that so many in our community are overwhelmed by their mental health needs and lacking community-based resources. Currently, access to care and the shortage of mental health resources are a huge strain on our rural healthcare systems. I view this as an opportunity to help fill a void.”

Merica Surdez, Chief of Provider and Clinic Operations at CHCS echoes Reisinger’s sentiments. “We witness daily our rural communities struggling with mental health, and we are fortunate to have Michele pursue this certification. This will allow us (CHCS) the opportunity to expand our mental health capabilities and provide greater access to care. This is good for our patients.”

Reisinger will offer mental health medication management services on Fridays in Onaga. She will modify her family practice clinics to expand early week appointments on Tuesday afternoons while maintaining Thursday mornings in Onaga and Thursday evenings in Corning.

Reisinger also expressed our rural communities are blessed to have a forward-thinking healthcare system who recognized early-on the need for mental health services and have made strides to pursue more options. “CHCS has proven they are vested in the best-interest of their communities, she said. Changing viewpoints about mental health and understanding the needs is certainly a step in the right direction.”

Reisinger is a native of Onaga, Kansas who has established a longstanding clinical practice of more than 25 years as a family nurse practitioner in her hometown. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Washburn University; Master of Science in Nursing and Doctor of Nursing practice degrees from the University of Kansas.

In addition to her clinic practice, Reisinger is full-time graduate-level nursing faculty at Washburn University School of Nursing and the Primary Investigator on a Health Resources & Services Administration-funded grant focused on the education and preparation of rural nurse practitioners for practice in medically underserved communities. She is a prior fellow for the Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities and was named a Rural Health Fellow by the National Rural Health Association.