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Provider Spotlight: Dr. Jorge Colon

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Dr. Jorge Colon is the head provider of the Willow Team and has been with the San Carlos Apache Healthcare Corporation for two years. Originally from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, Dr. Colon was referred to Izee’ Baa Gowąh from Dr. Fernando Cruzado, who recruited Dr. Colon to be a part of the SCAHC team.

“I got involved and I loved it right away,” said Dr. Colon of SCAHC. “The facility in itself, I just loved it … this was just something that I wanted to be a part of. I heard what they were doing and about the population that we were serving and the mission. I believed in the mission.”

Once he started at Izee’ Baa Gowąh, Dr. Colon quickly saw health issue parallels between the Hispanic and Native American communities such as diabetes, high cholesterol and obesity. He said that he was shocked with the diabetes in our community, saying he saw A1C tests as high as 16.

However, once treatments started and more doctors with the same vision joined the SCAHC team, he has seen an improvement with A1Cs dropping into single digits.

He works primarily in the Outpatient Department, Thursday through Monday. He also assists in the Emergency Department on weekends.

On an average day, Dr. Colon sees up to 25 patients in a day in the outpatient clinic.

While in the ED, he can see over 30 patients at a time. He also had training in Wound Care and spent time at Clarence Wesley Health Center in Bylas.

“I like to make my patients feel comfortable, so that they feel they can trust me and be open,” said Dr. Colon.

Dr. Colon studied biology at Central University in Puerto Rico before being accepted to UNIBE, a private university in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, for medical school. After completing medical school, Dr. Colon returned to Puerto Rico and further studied surgery, obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), emergency room and family medicine.

He spent 15 years as a trauma doctor in Central Mexico and Puerto Rico. He had a private practice and worked at three different hospitals in his hometown before coming to Izee’ Baa Gowąh. Dr. Colon had met Dr. Cruzado through his uncle, whom he worked with.

Dr. Colon settled in Queen Creek with his wife, son, god-son and daughter. He spends a lot of his free time watching his children play basketball and volleyball. He is a fan of Harley Davidson and enjoys the scenery of Arizona during his rides. He likes to play basketball and is interested in getting his pilot license.