Nurse Practitioner Ashli Boehm has set up independent practice in Detroit Lakes.
She operates Health Now Minnesota in the Healing Hub office at 115 Willow Street West No. 4.
Boehm, 28, specializes in hormone replacement therapy and weight loss, but offers services for everything from diabetes to depression, from fever, cough and cold to insomnia, asthma and acne.
After graduating from the University of Mary in Bismarck, N.D., in 2015, she worked primarily in the hospital setting for five years. While working full time, she was able to go back to become a nurse practitioner -- graduating with a masters of science in nursing as a family nurse practitioner from Simmons University in Boston in 2020.
But Boehm was heavily influenced in her career aspirations by two nurse practitioners who run the independent Anova Family Health Clinic in Watford City, N.D. -- the town Boehm grew up in.
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“I did my clinicals there,” she said. “It was really cool to have the experience of seeing a private practice and how they do things differently (then big health care companies).” The independent partners had to learn how to do their own marketing and insurance coding, for instance.
Boehm is partly modeling her own practice, a blend of holistic and standard medicine, after the practices of the Anova Clinic.
“They just give the best holistic care, but also practice science and follow health guidelines,” she said.
Boehm is certified in advanced cardiovascular life support, required for registered nurses working in the ICU or with adults, and also certified in pediatric advanced life support, which is required for RNs working with pediatric patients.
Her business partner is Mick Peterson, a nurse practitioner who owns and operates Health Now, a Bismarck-based telemedicine company that offers unlimited virtual primary care to businesses.
Boehm aims to provide personalized care, and that means blending different viewpoints with careful consideration of evidence-based practice to build trust and provide holistic care for patients.
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She works closely with a compound pharmacy (Dakota Pharmacy in Bismarck) to provide pure, customized medicine.
With hormone replacement therapy, for example, the pharmacy provides “either pumped foam, cream or gel, whatever you prefer,” she said. “The patient applies it to themself - there are way fewer side effects than oral hormone replacement.” The pharmacy owner has spent decades working on hormone replacement therapy. “He’s brilliant,” she said. “He’s my go-to guy on it.”
She also uses the compound pharmacy for other medicines, such as more natural options for thyroid disorders.
“If people are getting side effects from (prescription medications) they are taking now, they can come to me and I can get the compound pharmacy to make them pure, without fillers.”
Pain cream can also be made at the pharmacy. “(Most) providers aren’t giving patients that option,” she said. Same with migraine creams and insomnia creams. “There’s a lot of different things they can do,” she said. “Really you can compound and customize any medication with them.”
Boehm said that partnering with Health Now lets her provide personalized, affordable, and easily accessible care.
“We started the process of getting ready in December, and opened Feb. 1,” she said. For now, she keeps in-person office hours on Mondays and offers telemedicine other times during the week. Tuesday through Thursday she practices obesity medicine in Fargo, focusing on weight loss and treatment of metabolic disorders through diet.
She and her husband, Stefan Boehm, who owns Lighthouse Construction and Beacon Restoration, have lived in Detroit Lakes for three years. They have a 2-year-old son, Oliver, and are expecting another child.
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The Health Now Minnesota phone number is 218-416-4669 (HNOW).
