Escalante’s Kazan Memorial Clinic

I have lived in Escalante, Utah, for almost six years now. And the Kazan Memorial Clinic has played a big role in my family’s life. It’s actually the reason we moved here. It’s where my dad works and it’s also where my brother went to get stitches, where my sister went to get super glued, and where we get our flu shots done every year. Since we live in such a small town, the clinic is definitely an asset to people’s everyday lives.

Believe it or not, the average age of someone in Escalante is about 57 years old. And we all know that as you get older, your body just doesn’t work as well as it used to.

This also means that most of the business our clinic gets is because of all the elderly people living in and around Escalante. In our small town, the population is 819. Of that number 602 are adults, and 233 of those are senior citizens. That is almost half of the adults living here.

Without the clinic, a lot of people wouldn’t be here because they wouldn’t have work, others because of their medical needs, and more because they might’ve died by now. But luckily for us, we have a clinic!

History of Escalante’s Kazan Memorial Clinic

The Kazan Memorial Clinic was opened in 1967 and has been helping people ever since. Once the building of the new health center was complete, a victory dinner was held at the south ward recreation room. It was led by officers of the lions club of which Lemoin Pollack was project chairman as well as president.

Men and women around the town had worked hard to remodel the seven-room basement house purchased by Dr. Ivan Kazan, hence the name of the clinic. Before Dr. Kazan purchased the old house, he was working out of a trailer house and was only available twice a week.

For eight years, he had continued the service of flying in from Page, Arizona, two days a week (Tuesdays and Fridays). If there was an emergency, the patient would be flown to either the hospital in Page, or the Panguitch hospital.

Throughout the remodeling process, people of the community donated $1400 in cash and spent many hours working on the grounds and the building. Dr. Kazan even added a new X-ray machine.

Shortly after the clinic was opened, a room inside was prepared for the dentist who at the time was Dr. Merz Hugentobler who also flew in twice a week to give dentistry services. Although his patients were usually pleased with his work, he didn’t continue to practice in Escalante for more than a year.

Dr. Kazan actually died in 1975 in a plane crash. He was flying through a snowstorm to perform a surgery at 6:30 in the morning. He was on his way to Page and had actually left Escalante at 4:30 that morning. Normally it was only a 30 minute flight or so but because of the snow storm, it was taking much longer. Sadly, he died. I can say that everyone around him was grateful for all he did and how many people he helped or even saved.

The Escalante Memorial Clinic has a history of helping people with financial, geographical, and even cultural barriers to health.

Where Does the Word Clinic come from?

The definition of clinic is an establishment or hospital department where outpatients are given medical treatment or advice, especially of a certain nature.

There are also more than 1,400 clinics throughout the US and they are used to help people in need every day. And most of them are able to provide the COVID vaccines and booster shots.

Have you ever wondered where the term clinic comes from? It is actually derived from the greek word klinein which basically means slope, lean or recline, and the suffix -cline on recline means bed or couch. And Klinikos was basically a physician. So the physicians would visit people who were bed riddenly sick. In Latin this became clinicus.

The Difference between a Hospital and a Clinic

Some people are often confused by what the difference is between a hospital and a clinic. Well, it’s simple really. Clinics are smaller than hospitals but offer a broader range of services than a doctors office might. Most people visit clinics for regular preventative care or things that aren’t an emergency. But every clinic is different.

In our clinic, we are usually able to help people with some emergencies but not all. Obviously, some emergencies are worse than others. Sometimes we have to either lifeflight someone out to Salt Lake or St. George, and other times, we ambulance them to the Panguitch hospital.

As for our ambulance, it’s basically all volunteer EMTs who take a very long hard class and give their time to help people. And at the hospital, there are lots of people who work there. Even some people from Escalante work there.

At the clinic, there are lots of tasks they can perform. We have a pharmacy where people can get medicine (I’ll talk more about that later), and we have three or four exam rooms where people can get checkups, get flu shots, tetanus shots, and COVID shots as well as other shots.

This is also where we get our sports physicals done. Usually, the sports physicals are done by my dad, Dr. White, but if you’re his kid, he technically isn’t allowed to do your physical, so Dr. Mooney has to come over and do it. He only comes over twice a month though. The clinic also has a therapist named Tad. He comes over twice every week just like Dr. Kazan used to.

Clinics and Science

You might wonder how a clinic has anything to do with science, but actually it’s kind of obvious when you think about it. Have you ever gone to the clinic, been diagnosed with something, and needed some medicine to help you feel better? Well in that case, you would be prescribed certain medicine depending on your body and your sickness or pain.

Some commonly prescribed medicines include amoxicillin, lisinopril, atorvastatin, levothyroxine, amlodipine, albuterol, and more. These medications are usually prescribed and can’t just be picked up. But there are many other medicines that can. Medicines that you can pick up are usually known as over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. They can be bought without any prescriptions and are usually for relieving pain, itches, or nausea. Some help with headaches, soreness, cramps, diarrhea, tooth decay, and athlete’s foot.

Some of the most common OTC drugs include acetaminophen (Tylenol), ibuprofen (advil, motrin), antihistamines such as loratadine (claritin 24H), and cough suppressants such as dextromethorphan (robitussin).

Some other things they have at the pharmacy include differin gel for acne, hydrocortisone cream, and bacitracin zinc. These are just a few of the things that my family has gotten from the pharmacy.

I enjoyed learning about the history of the clinic and actually learned a lot of new things. I also think it’s cool how much science ties into our clinic and medication.

– by Madi W. (15) Escalante

Feature image caption: The Kazan Memorial Clinic in Escalante, Utah. Courtesty Kazan Memorial Clinic’s Facebook Page.

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