By: Kathy Hubbard
You may have seen the ads announcing the arrival of Dr. Ron Barrett, MD, FACS, the new physician and surgeon of urology at Bonner General Health. And you may have wondered when or why one should see a doctor with this specialty. That’s why I’m here!
First of all, a urologist treats conditions that affect the urinary system in both men and women. These conditions include your kidneys, bladder, ureters, and urethra. Johns Hopkins explains, “Your urinary system filters blood, removes metabolic waste and excess water and produces, stores and eliminates urine from the body.”
Dr. Barrett is new to us, not the profession. He earned his medical degree in 1997, completed his general surgery internship and urology residency in 2002. For many years he practiced in Pennsylvania, then moved to Oregon in 2014 and Sandpoint about a year ago but continued to commute to Klamath Falls until this June when he joined the BGH community.
“Skiing first brought us to Sandpoint, but the people and the lake made us want to stay. It’s very important to my wife and me to contribute to the community here and I think that the Urology Clinic at BGH will certainly meet community needs,” he told me.
I asked him if he would tell us specifically what his practice would be doing. He said, “Urologists treat urologic conditions both medically and surgically. Our planned surgical procedures will be outpatient/same-day-surgeries in nature.
“One of the most important things we will be doing is evaluating patients who present with hematuria or blood in their urine whether visible or microscopic. This requires the performance of a diagnostic and therapeutic examination of the bladder via a small flexible cystoscope using local analgesia.
“We will be able to treat bladder masses surgically via transurethral resection (TURBT). We will also be able to surgically treat symptomatic kidney stones and all ureteral stones.
“This treatment centers on ureteroscopy (a small endoscope advanced via the urethra and bladder into the ureter/kidney) with the use of a laser to break up stones into small fragments while under anesthesia. Fortunately, only a fraction of kidney stones are symptomatic requiring surgical intervention. Many stones can be monitored over time with recommendations for reducing stone risk through diet, behavior, and rarely medications.
“We will also be able to treat a subset of men with urinary retention due to an enlarged prostate by removing obstructing prostatic tissue via an endoscope called transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP).
“And we will also be able to perform vasectomies for elective male sterilization with local analgesia.”
One of my questions was which of the many conditions that require treatment is the most prevalent and which would be most detrimental to a patient’s health if left untreated? He replied:
“An important condition for all patients to have evaluated is hematuria (blood in the urine) both visible and microscopic. Many times, this is due to benign conditions such as UTI, urinary stones or prostate enlargement in men which may not necessarily require additional intervention. However, one cause of hematuria is cancer either bladder, ureteral or kidney. This is obviously an important diagnosis and therefore hematuria should not be ignored at any age.”
Perhaps this is a good time to talk about urine. Normal, healthy urine is a pale straw or transparent yellow color. Darker yellow or honey colored urine means you need more water. A darker, brownish color may indicate a liver problem or severe dehydration. And pinkish, red or cola-colored urine may mean blood in the urine.
I know, it’s awkward and a little embarrassing to talk to your healthcare provider about things “down there” but symptoms such as frequent urination or the inability to do so, having a sudden urgency to urinate even when you know your bladder isn’t full, lower back pain or pelvic pain are just a few reasons to put your ego aside and make an appointment. It may be nothing, but it may require a visit with Dr. Barrett.
“It is our hope that having increased availability of basic urologic services at BGH will improve access for patients to these services. Hopefully, this will increase the likelihood of people seeking appropriate care for their urologic issues thereby improving their quality of life and long term health,” Dr. Barrett said.
Kathy Hubbard was a charter member of Bonner General Health Foundation. She can be reached at [email protected]. This article was written for publication in the Bonner County Daily Bee on October 14, 2026.