Logan Health Whitefish Opens OB/GYN Clinic
The new clinic will be led by Dr. Tessa Winterton, an obstetric provider whose ties to the community include previous work at the Alpine Women’s Center
By Zoë Buhrmaster
Whitefish women are seeing a shift in obstetrical and gynecological care with the opening of a new OB/GYN clinic at the Logan Health Specialty Clinic at 2000 Hospital Way, across the street from the Birth Center.
Currently, a large portion of deliveries at the Birth Center are done by providers from two independent practices – Heart and Hands Midwifery and Family Healthcare and the Alpine Women’s Center. At the end of the year, two of the three obstetric providers at Alpine – Dr. Mirna Bowden and Dr. Katheleen Lewison – will switch to practicing only gynecology, leaving the world of childbirth.
“The day-to-day in obstetrics gets to be a lot after a while,” said Leslie Carpenter, Alpine’s practice manager. “It’s kind of always been their plan to back out of that world a little bit and focus on gynecology.”
The third obstetric provider, Dr. Tessa Winterton, is moving her services across the street from the Alpine Center to the new OB/GYN clinic in Whitefish starting next week. In the release announcing the clinic’s opening, Winterton said she was “excited to partner with Logan Health to improve access to full-spectrum pregnancy and women’s health care.”
“This collaboration will allow me and my colleagues the platform to provide even more comprehensive and coordinated care to women at every stage of life, and I look forward to our patients having an outstanding care experience,” Winterton stated.
Logan Health will hire additional staff for the clinic in the fall, including part-time providers Dr. Karysse Hutson and Dr. Daniel Tomlinson and Certified Nurse-Midwife Misha Russ to ensure that the hospital is able to deliver babies round-the-clock.
Annually, between 570 and 610 babies are delivered at the Whitefish Birth Center.
The hospital already has providers qualified and trained in both female health and pregnancy care, but hiring in-house providers dedicated solely to OB/GYN practices is a new step for the Whitefish hospital, said Sid Neilson, the clinic’s service line director.
“It’s more along the lines of being able to continue to serve the patient population that’s there,” Neilson said. “We just want to make sure we’re there for our community, and it’s exciting for us to be able to expand those services up in Whitefish.”
Winterton will be able to start seeing patients at the new clinic beginning Sept. 25.