OB/GYN Specialist Kim Christopher Mackey, M.D., will join the medical staff of Southwest Health Center as its new full-time Director of Women’s Health beginning Sept. 16.

At that time, SHC will also begin construction of an addition of approximately 20,000 square feet to its Platteville campus, to create southwest Wisconsin’s first women’s health center.

Mackey is a board-certified specialist with the skills and abilities to provide a full spectrum of essential obstetrics and gynecological care. Mackey is currently a member of the faculty of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He sees patients and performs surgery in Madison.

Through his career, Mackey has delivered more than 2,900 babies and has performed more than 2,000 surgeries. He has been teaching and performing minimally invasive gynecologic surgery for more than 10 years.

Mackey is an expert in laparoscopic (key-hole) surgery, including the da Vinci robotic-assisted surgery system.

“We could not be more proud to recruit a specialist of Dr. Mackey’s stature and abilities to our growing Medical Staff,” said SHC CEO Dan Rohrbach. “His excitement about joining our team and creating a new women’s health center speaks highly of not only who we are at SHC but also where we are going. Dr. Mackey’s skills, experience and personal service are all exceptional, and our patients will find this level of care simply unavailable anywhere else. This will be truly remarkable care right here at home.”

A native of northern New Jersey, Mackey performed his undergraduate studies at Princeton University and earned his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. He completed his OB/GYN residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in downtown Philadelphia. He has lived in Wisconsin and practiced at UW Health in Madison for the past 11 years.

“Coming to Platteville is a perfect opportunity to balance the love my family and I have for living in Wisconsin with a groundbreaking new partnership with SHC to provide exceptional care for women,” said Mackey.

The SHC Board of Directors anticipates breaking ground on a new building project that will house the new women’s health center as well as a new orthopedics and sports medicine program (beginning in 2014), plus expanded rehabilitation facilities and other needed health care services. The new construction is expected to be complete in September 2014. Until then, Mackey will see patients in a suite of rooms adjacent to SHC’s Emergency Department.

Mackey anticipates being able to provide as much as 80 percent of the health care services for which people currently drive to Dubuque or Madison. The difference is, he said, “At SHC patients will get the highest level of personal care in a more appropriate local setting. Big hospitals are a wonderful environment to care for patients who need a relatively narrow range of specialty care. What we will deliver in Platteville is a wide range of high quality personalized care with none of the hassle or cost of travel.”

Mackey will care for a full range of obstetrical and reproductive patients, including fertility evaluation and treatment. His gynecology services will encompass everything from adolescent issues to menopause, including irregular periods, contraception, ovarian cysts, fibroids and incontinence.

“You don’t have to be sick to benefit from great OB/GYN care,” he said. “I love that my practice is a balance between knowing patients for years and helping patients through high acuity emergencies. And I love delivering babies,” he says. “Even after so many years and so many babies, those moments are always magical.”

A core part of his practice is working with patients to truly understand not only the diagnosis but also the concerns of each individual. For Mackey, managing a medical problem or addressing certain symptoms requires collaboration between doctor and patient. What works for one patient may not be right for another.

“I know I’m doing the best thing possible by my patients when I am teaming up with them,” he said. “Together, we make good choices to solve the complex problems nature has given us.”

Mackey is passionate about collaboration. “It is important that my patient and I both have a perfectly clear understanding of what the concern is,” he said. “Only then can we come to mutual decisions to achieve what the patient wants and needs.”

Dr. Mackey and his wife, Meghan, have two boys and two girls in grades five through nine. Meghan Mackey is a doctor of sorts herself — an art doctor — who works from home repairing and preserving precious works of art for museums.

For information or to schedule appointments with Dr. Mackey, patients may call toll free 1-855-86-OBGYN. (1-855-866-2496).