Carson Valley doctor receives Lifetime Achievement Award

Having practiced medicine in the Carson Valley for nearly 30 years and with over 40 years of healthcare experience, Dr. Evan Easley recently received the Nevada Business Magazine Healthcare Hero’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

“When I was made aware of this honor, I had three thoughts. The first was ‘I’m just getting started.’ The second was ‘you have no idea how much leverage this is going to give me when I walk into work on Monday and third my son asked me what the award was for and I told him it’s the Lifetime Achievement and he said, ‘dad, I think they’re just trying to tell you that you are getting old.’

Created in 2006, the Healthcare Hero Awards is a way to celebrate the work and actions of Nevada’s healthcare workers and contributors from volunteers, the care coordinator that helps connect to necessary services to the nurse or doctor that selflessly cares for patients, and countless others.

Easley was honored for his long standing dedication to the Carson Valley.

Before moving to Nevada in 1995, Easley obtained his medical degree from the Loma Linda University in California and completed an internal medicine internship at Kettering Medical Center in Ohio.

Once in Nevada, his plan was to go into medical education, but after the birth of his son, Easley said his family started putting roots down in the Carson Valley, which was beginning to grow at that time too.

“When the hospital first opened, there were two internists, a family practitioner and a hospice doctor, so from humble beginnings,” said Easley. “Medicine has changed tremendously over the years, but it’s still as tremendously important. It’s important to give people the right diagnosis. It’s important to listen to what they say. It’s important to care and it’s important to be a member in the community in that regard too.”

Carson Valley Health opened its doors in 1993 as a Barton facility offering urgent care and a physicians clinic. In 1997 the surgery department was added, and the urgent care became a 24/7 emergency department. Careflight joined the campus in 2000, the same year Renown joined in partnership with Barton.

In 2004, it became a critical access hospital, initially opening with 15 beds. The ICU was added, and the hospital expanded to 30 beds.

Easley became the first chief of staff at the Gardnerville location and has held the title of chief medical officer at the hospital since 2016. When the coronavirus outbreak arrived in the Valley and the hospital, Easley was at the front lines to help guide the medical center through the pandemic.

He is the founding board member of the CVH’s Accountable Care Organization and has served the Nevada Medical Board, National Board of Medical Examiners and the Drug Enforcement Administration, among others all while he continues to maintain his practice at the Carson Valley Health Senior Care where he is beloved by his patients for his compassionate and devoted care.

“I still have a couple patients who I have been seeing since I first started here,” he said. “One thing I find fulfilling is helping patients to navigate their health. As they age, there are many questions that arise, I’m certainly finding myself in that category now and helping people to understand diagnostic, testing and treatment options is important.”

Despite the “getting old” comment from his son, Easley shows no sign of slowing down and remains excited by his chosen profession.

“And even though the days can be frustrating, and they can be long and challenging, it’s well worth it in the end,” he said. “I have had the tremendous privilege of working shoulder to shoulder with some of the best colleagues over the last 28 years and that goes back to nurses, physicians and administration. What we have done over the years has been a community and team effort. Everyone’s success has trickled up to my success and, on their behalf, I thank you and I, humbly from my heart, thank you.”