Category: News

Drs Autumn Loomis and Jennie Hooper joined St. Luke’s Wood River (SLWR) Emergency Department (ED) in 2022 and are thrilled to call the Wood River Valley home while helping residents and visitors alike in their time of need. Loomis was born and raised in Hailey and graduated from Wood River High School in 1998. She attended the University of Michigan for her undergraduate degree before going to medical school in San Antonio, Texas and completing her residency training in Louisville, Kentucky. Since then, she’s worked in numerous locations across the US and abroad. Most recently, after moving back from New Zealand, Loomis and her husband James lived in Boston for a few years before she came back home to Idaho. Hooper is originally from Los Angeles but has lived all over the country including San Diego, Washington DC, Charleston, SC, and Fort Collins, CO. She has two sisters, one of whom lives in Hailey. Hooper adds, “I come from a family of all lawyers and am the first on either side to go into medicine.” Hooper received her Bachelor of Science in Cognitive Science with a concentration in Neuroscience from University of California, San Diego. She earned her medical degree at George Washington University in Washington, DC and completed her internship and residency at Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.  Hooper came to SLWR from Oregon and was previously in Wyoming and Colorado for numerous years. She is particularly interested in Wilderness Medicine, Pre-Hospital/Emergency Services as well as Teaching and Academics. read more

St. Luke’s is happy to welcome Victoria Kent, DO and Joe Pendleton, MD, who are joining the St. Luke’s Wood River Family Medicine Clinic as primary care providers, in January of 2023. They both attended University of Wisconsin-Madison for their undergraduate degree, which is where they met and embarked on a path that led them to the Wood River Valley.  Pendleton majored in microbiology with minors in gender studies and global health. He continued his education at University of Wisconsin-Madison for medical school. During his 3rd and 4th years he was able to follow his passion for rural healthcare by rotating around the small communities of Wisconsin.  Kent majored in Biology and Spanish at University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed her medical degree at Pacific Northwest University of Osteopathic Medicine in Yakima. She says, “Almost all of my clinical rotations were in rural Washington, and I was drawn to the scope of a family physician in a rural community.” read more

News Release: St. Luke’s Wood River welcomes Pediatrician to Family Medicine Clinic

Dr. Cait Hopeman grew up in Seattle. She felt fortunate to visit the Wood River Valley a handful of times during childhood with her family, enjoying skiing, ice skating, swimming, and hiking. After completing her Bachelor of Arts in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry with a minor in Spanish at Middlebury College, she worked for four years as an outdoor educator and guide for the National Outdoor Leadership School, leading 3 week to 3 month long trips throughout the western United States, Alaska, and Patagonia, Chile. Hopeman commented, “It was an incredible experience to teach and to develop leadership skills during those post-college years. During that same time, I also taught remote medicine courses for a Seattle based company, Remote Medical International. The experiences complemented each other well, especially when medical emergencies came up in the backcountry.” She then returned to school, completing her medical degree, and obtaining a Master’s in Business Administration, at Dartmouth College through a combined program with the Geisel School of Medicine and the Tuck School of Business.  Hopeman then went onto Seattle Children’s Hospital for her pediatric residency, completing the rural Alaska Track Program, travelling between Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Seattle over the 3 years to expand her training and gain more experience in primary care and rural medicine. read more

News Release: Trauma care at St. Luke’s Wood River recognized by State

In a remote mountain resort area where the athletes are legends and the athletic endeavors are legendary, locals and visitors play hard, making serious accidents and injuries fairly common occurrences. It is essential to be able to quickly and expertly treat, stabilize and, if necessary, transfer to another facility.  St. Luke’s Wood River Emergency Department receives approximately 7,800 patients every year, with about 400 of those being trauma related, 21% of which require transfer. read more