Yuma Clinic Welcomes New Family Nurse Practitioner to Expand Primary Care

Melissa Kriley joined the Yuma Clinic as a family nurse practitioner on January 6, bringing bilingual primary care to 1000 West 8th Avenue and expanding the clinic's FNP roster to four providers.

Her arrival fills out a team that now includes Vanessa Dischner, Haley Perry, and Alan Favier, giving the clinic a bench deep enough to offer same-day appointments for urgent needs alongside extended hours. Kriley is currently accepting patients across the full scope of family medicine: annual wellness visits, vaccinations, chronic disease management for conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, and treatment of acute illnesses. As a family nurse practitioner, she is also authorized to diagnose and prescribe medications, meaning patients can resolve many issues in a single visit rather than being referred elsewhere.

Kriley's bilingualism stands out in a county where language access has long shaped whether patients seek care at all. Yuma District Hospital and Clinics CEO Anne Kreutzer called it "a differentiator for our services," noting that Kriley joins a staff that also includes a full-time interpreter and several bilingual support employees. For Spanish-speaking families who have historically navigated primary care with limited language support, a bilingual FNP who holds a full patient panel represents a direct improvement in care continuity.

Kriley lives in Wray, where her husband Tom has been a medical provider at Wray Hospital for five years. The two are expecting their first child, rooting the family's daily life in the same rural Colorado communities the clinic serves.

The four-FNP structure matters practically for working families weighing a clinic visit against an urgent care or emergency room trip. When providers share a patient panel, the clinic can absorb same-day requests without bottlenecking a single schedule. Chronic disease patients, in particular, benefit from that flexibility: a blood pressure recheck, a medication adjustment, or a diabetes lab follow-up is far less likely to fall through the cracks when appointment slots are available within days rather than weeks.

The Yuma Clinic is a federally qualified Rural Health Center located within the Yuma District Hospital and Clinics campus, serving patients from newborns through seniors. New patients are always welcome. To schedule an appointment with Kriley or any of the clinic's FNPs, call (970) 848-3896. The clinic is at 1000 West 8th Avenue in Yuma, Colorado, and same-day appointments are often available for acute needs.