Carole St-Aubin
Shawville Dec. 10, 2021
Since it opened its doors in 2014, the Lotus Clinic in Shawville has continually expanded its services with the goal of maximizing its medical staff resources and offering optimal patient care.
The clinic also coordinates the GMF du Pontiac, a group of . . .
medical professionals working together to offer simplified access to medical services, an organization that won a prize of excellence in 2010, awarded by the Ministry of Health, for offering orphaned patients clinic access to its medical care services.
Clinic founder, owner and office manager Joanne Romain said she is currently recruiting other doctors, “My focus is on recruiting doctors to be able to replace my four doctors that are above 70 years old. One is retiring at the end of December. Dr. Lamarche,” she told THE EQUITY.
Currently housing nine doctors, one physiotherapist, one physiotherapy technician, one psychotherapist, three GMF nurses, and one GMF social worker, the clinic has recently welcomed newcomer Maria Turinova, a general nurse practitioner.
Originally from the Czech Republic, Turinova has worked in a hospital setting since 2007. After finishing her Baccalaureate in nursing, she received her Master’s Degree in nursing and completed her nurse practitioner program and then began working at the Lotus Clinic in May 2021.
Working as part of the team of medical professionals, Turinova said one of the aspects she enjoys the most is her autonomy, all while having access to all the resources offered in-house.
Turinova can follow up with diabetic patients, patients experiencing high blood pressure, obesity and counseling for quitting smoking. She can give out basic prescriptions, she can prescribe laboratory and x-ray tests and she can administer flu shots.
When asked about some of the positive aspects of her position at the clinic, Turinova said, “Well, I definitely like that I can work with women’s health, I think that’s something I always wanted to do, I think that’s a very good mix. Plus I get the personal satisfaction that I can contribute, I can make a difference and I just love how we work together, you know, it’s very well done in this clinic.”
Some of the aspects of women’s health Turinova can help with is doing pap tests, inserting an IUD, she can follow up with pregnant women and many of the other issues that women deal with.
“I really like all this team work that we have here at Lotus because you know I can do one part, the clinician nurse will do the second part, if I needed of course, some counseling from the doctors, all the services are here,” said Turinova.
“They are excellent, you know, they really give me lots of support. I’m just starting. So obviously, I don’t know everything, this is still a learning journey for me. I just can’t say enough, the whole team here is really supportive,” Turinova added.
Other medical services that the Lotus Clinic can provide to its patients include performing minor surgical procedures such as removing cysts or doing biopsies, and you don’t have to be a patient there to see a doctor in the clinic. They also host evening and weekend clinic hours for anyone needing to see a doctor, which frees up a lot of time for doctors in the clinic as well as reducing emergency room visits.
“I think it’s distressing, how many people don’t have a family doctor, so just being able to offer these services to patients, I think is a great thing. It would be nice to see more clinics like this throughout the Pontiac,” Turinova concluded.
Romain said she is happy to welcome Turinova to their team of medical and administration professionals who make it all work seamlessly together and said she hopes to add diabetic foot care services and more doctors to the clinic in the near future because there is a need for it.
