CommonSpirit Mercy Hospital is excited to welcome Teressa Starr, DO, home to Durango to fill an important role for our community. As a general surgeon who performs trauma and emergency surgeries, Dr. Starr’s staff position shows a significant commitment to providing consistent, high-quality care to our Four Corners region. Dr. Starr will function on an on-call basis, seeing nearly every patient who comes to our emergency room needing surgery.
While Mercy Hospital will continue to use other highly trained emergency surgeons as needed, Dr. Starr looks forward to filling this ongoing, stable role on the team.
"Acute care surgeons’ work is very intertwined," Dr. Starr explained. "All of us who practice at Mercy have extensive training, and we will all work together to tackle complex cases so our patients get the best outcomes. But I am looking forward to becoming a consistent presence in our hospital and building trusting relationships with folks in the community.”
Dr. Starr will also see her post-operative patients in clinic, and she’ll work closely with our patients’ providers in other specialties, ensuring seamless continuity of care.
Dr. Starr comes to Mercy after completing medical school at Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences in Washington state and a general surgery residency at the busiest emergency department in North Carolina, Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. She then spent time practicing at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque, where she cared for patients from all over the state as a member of a large acute care surgery team. She is also a Fort Lewis College graduate, has family in the Durango area, and is looking forward to raising her two kids here with her husband.
“I just love practicing acute care surgery,” Dr. Starr said. “This position at Mercy completely aligns with what I wanted to do coming out of residency and the type of experience I gained in New Mexico. I’m so excited to be providing this type of care to this community that means so much to me!”
