Aches and pains. Coughs and sneezes. Hyperactivity and tantrums. Parenting dilemmas.
“It’s all part of the human condition, which we take care of,” said Cecile Fraley, a founding member and current CEO of Pediatric Partners of the Southwest.
As a pediatrician and business partner, Fraley works tirelessly to provide care to children and young adults at her practice in Durango. She’s been helping parents raise healthy children for more than 25 years.
Fraley began her career in this community in 1994 after completing her residency at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. She was looking to settle in a mountain town and received an opportunity to join Southwest Pediatrics.
In 2005, Fraley and three other regional pediatricians came together to form a new pediatric practice, Pediatric Partners of the Southwest. The PPSW team offers holistic physical and behavioral health care for residents from birth to 21 years old. They administer routine vaccinations, diagnose illness, provide parents with growth and development guidance for their children and support young adults.
“It runs the gamut of routine illness to really complex illness because we are far from the front range children’s hospitals,” she said.
Fraley said the practice uses telemedicine to work with specialists at the Children’s Hospital Colorado in Denver to provide a higher level of care and to allow PPSW patients to be seen at their home for some health care. This is just one of the many ways Fraley is using health innovations to remove barriers to better health care in the rural region.
“The business has just grown tremendously, both in innovations and offerings,” she said. “It’s really great to be able to offer that level of care here, so people aren’t needing to drive, whether to our offices or to Denver.”
As the company grows, so do the tasks ahead for Fraley as CEO. Today, there are eight pediatricians and four advanced practice providers, as well as four behavioral health experts offering integrated behavioral health care, and about 20 other staff members. As a leader of the small business, she carves out time to consider new advancements in care and how to implement those systems in the practice.
“The role as CEO has evolved,” Fraley said. “As we’ve gotten bigger, it became challenging to manage the business and see patients full time. I still see patients one day a week. The rest of the time, I run the business.”
Transitioning day-to-day responsibilities allowed Fraley to create new partnerships in the community, and beyond. Fraley helped establish a PPSW school-based health clinic in Bayfield in 2018, and PPSW took over operations for the school-based health clinic at Durango High School in 2019.
Fraley meets with practitioners in the region to share successful implementation of new processes and discuss best practices. She is also helping other practices in Montrose and Farmington streamline their own telemedicine programs.
Fraley impacts state health care policy by serving on the board for the American Academy of Pediatrics Colorado, and a Medical Services Board for Colorado Health Care Policy and Finance. She was selected to be part of the Rural Colorado Primary Care Leaders program sponsored by Colorado Health Foundation, Center for Creative Leadership and Colorado Rural Health Center.
“It’s really neat to be here in Southwest Colorado but involved in statewide efforts,” Fraley said. “We just got back from presenting at the national conference for American Academy of Pediatrics in New Orleans. We had six rounds of presentations on telemedicine to general pediatricians at this conference. It was really amazing to realize that we are on the forefront of something that is not commonly done. But here in our small town, it really makes sense.”
Fraley works with attorneys, teachers and health professionals as a member of the Colorado Department of Health and Human Services Behavioral Health Task Force to identify challenges for delivering care.
After 25 years, she is the oldest partner in her practice. Still, she loves staying connected to the community.
Fraley said: “Every day I’m seeing patients of mine having their own kids. Seeing the cycles of life in the community is amazing. I am incredibly proud of the PPSW team.”