To contribute to the health and well-being of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and surrounding Native people by providing top-quality culturally sensitive care and services to every patient through best clinical practice.
Primary Care Services
RPHC provides general medical visits and annual well check visits for children, adults, and elders. This includes physicals, preventative care, blood tests, and immunizations to stop health problems before they occur.
Comprehensive care plans are developed to address larger health concerns/issues. Providers work in conjunction with all other services at RPHC.
RPHC providers also provide an array of other services based on patient needs, but the facility is not an urgent care or emergency room and refers patients to other facilities as necessary.
An illustrative list of services includes:
- Orthopedic Injections
- Biopsies
- EKG
- Incision and Drainage
- Cyst Removal
- Sexually transmitted Illness testing
- Sutures
- Toenail removal
- Trigger finger injection
- Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine
Primary Care Providers
Family Medicine, Division Chief of Primary Care
Dr. Kody Smith is Board Certified in Family Medicine and a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He enjoys aerospace medicine, assisting patients with Orthopedic and Diabetic needs, working with children and adults, and all aspect of Family Medicine. His outside interests include spending time with his wife and kids, surfing, reading, sports, working on cars and playing the guitar.
Family Medicine
Dr. Michael Truesdell was born in Williams Arizona and grew up in neighborhood behind “Big Surf” in Tempe. He is the first Member of the White Mountain Apache Tribe to receive the degree of Medical Doctor. He graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology from ASU in 1984. He then went on to serve in the U.S. Army as an Infantryman from ’85 – ’89. He returned to school at the U of A pre-med and received his Bachelors of Administration in Psychology, before completing Medical School in 1996. He completed the Family Medicine Residency at Maricopa Medical Center rural tract in 1999 and joined the USPHS Commissioned Corps. He worked for four years in Tuba City where he became the Chief of Family Medicine. In 2013, he was asked to transfer to the Salt River Clinic where has become the Chief of Medicine. He is married, enjoys working out and playing sports.
Family Medicine
Dr. Raysenia James is a member of the Navajo Nation and was born and raised in Kingman, AZ. She is a Board Certified Family Medicine Physician and received her medical degree from Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. She went on to complete her family medicine residency at the University of Arizona. Dr. James attended the University of Arizona for undergraduate and graduate studies and received a Bachelor of Science in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Master in Public Health with a concentration in epidemiology. Prior to her medical career, Dr. James worked as an epidemiologist for the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona Epidemiology Center and worked with tribes in Arizona, Nevada and Utah on various public health issues, community based research projects and data analysis. In her current practice, she treats a wide range of patients from newborns to geriatrics. She has interests in diabetes management, chronic pain, preventative care and integrated behavioral health. Dr. James came to the SRPMIC at the start of the COVID pandemic in March 2020. She helped create and implement COVID testing for the community and surrounding areas. Dr. James is grateful that she grew up in a household where Navajo was spoken on a daily basis. Because of this, she is able to understand and speak Navajo and has utilized these skills to treat Navajo-speaking patients. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her dogs, cooking, playing golf and building complex Lego models. Her heart belongs to the UA and is a Wildcat for life. Bear Down!
Family Nurse Practitioner
Gem Bartsch is a Licensed Family Nurse Practitioner with over 37 years of experience in a variety of clinical settings. Mrs. Bartsch completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing through Pacific Union College, and her Master of Science-Family Nurse Practitioner degree through Arizona State University. Using her background of med-surg, emergency room, and labor and delivery, she became a leader in Staff and Organizational Development, and Process and Quality Improvement. For more than 19 years her focus has been in adult family practice with the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, with an emphasis on diabetes management and wellness. She is the recipient of the Phoenix Indian Medical Center 2013 Provider of the Year Award – Salt River Clinic. In her free time, she enjoys hiking and exploring Arizona.
Family Nurse Practitioner
Christina L. Interpreter is our female Native American Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) from both the Hopi and Navajo tribes. She grew up on the both Hopi and Navajo reservations in the small towns of Kykotsmovi and Kayenta Arizona. Ms. Interpreter has received two bachelor’s degrees from Northern Arizona University; Health Promotion/Education and Nursing. She worked in the areas of public health/clinic setting, general/trauma surgery, transplant surgery and emergency specialties for both private and Indian Health Services. She then went on to attain her Master’s degree from the University of California San Francisco, Family Nurse Practitioner program. Her fellowship provided added training of her current passion, diabetes medical management. Prior to coming onboard with Salt River in 2017, Ms. Interpreter worked with Gila River Health Care as an FNP. As a native female, she upholds the native values of sustaining family generations and her ambition is to influence the future of family legacies. In her time away from the clinic, she enjoys her family time, the outdoors, movies and continues to be inspired by her patients, and her family: fiancé, daughters and grandchildren. She is also involved in a camp that SRPMIC has been a part of that helps diabetes prevention among the youth. This affiliation is with the University of Arizona’s Native American Wellness Youth Camp for Diabetes Prevention and is carried out every summer.
Family Nurse Practitioner, Nurse Midwife
Family Nurse Practitioner, Walk-in clinic provider
Priscilla Wilson is a Certified Family Nurse Practitioner (C-FNP) who has been serving the SRPMIC Community since 2020. She came to Arizona as an ER traveling nurse where she worked in Pediatric ERs and Trauma Services for over 11years in Phoenix at St. Joseph Hospital and at Scottsdale Honor Health Osborn. She started her career in healthcare as a CNA in 1992 and is proud to have worked every level of nursing. She became a Registered Nurse in 2004 in California and would continue on to received her Bachelor’s Degree from Grand Canyon University and completed her schooling for Family Nurse Practitioner at Northern Arizona University. Along this journey, she worked in the areas Med-Surg, Home Health, and Case Management. She found her true passion working in the ER at Long Beach Memorial Hospital in California. FNP Wilson was born and raised in Pasadena, California and is married with 2 adult children and a cat. During her time away from work, she enjoys traveling with her family, hiking, kayaking and making Lego plants.
Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner
Schedule an Appointment
To schedule an appointment call 480-278-RPHC (7742)
Resources & Quick Links
- CDC : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc.gov)
- Diseases and Conditions: Diseases and Conditions – Mayo Clinic
