January - March, 2003

Women's Health

Center takes new look at women’s health

Where’s little discrimination between men and women when it comes to our most life-threatening diseases and physical threats. There is a big difference, however, in how we deal with them.
Gerald Joseph, M.D., ob/gyn and medical director for St. John’s Women’s Services leads St. John’s team of physicians and providers who are focused on providing specialty care for women.
“When women look for a physician, they look specifically for a health care provider who understands and concentrates on their unique physical and emotional needs,” he says.
St. John's Center for Women, the newest obstetrics and gynecology practice in St. John’s Fremont Medical Building in Springfield, opened for business Aug. 27, 2001, but recently expanded into a 7,000 square-foot space in the same facility.
Joseph came to St. John's in August from the Ochsner Clinic and Ochsner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans, La.,
The center boasts an education room for women, a multi-disciplinary menopause center and will have a lactation center staffed by a certified lactation consultant nearby to support the patients of the health system.
“We have created resources for all facets of a woman’s life, with multiple specialties represented to treat the whole woman. From the décor in the facilities, to the variety of educational resources available, these services cater to the special needs of women,” Joseph explained.
Juliette Vestal-Gibbons, M.D. and Christina Corry Litherland, M.D. are Joseph’s physician partners.
Plans are to ultimately employ eight providers, in addition to the physicians and nurse practitioner, Jana Hyden, CNP.
Joseph, who named the new clinic, said he chose the name because he wanted to communicate the clinic's range of services for women.
"First, I wanted the name to include St. John's, and secondly, this clinic will take a more broad approach to women's care than just obstetrics and gynecology," Joseph says.
He said he hopes the clinic will include bone-density tests, which check for signs of osteoporosis.
Joseph says his No. 1 goal for St. John's women's services is for St. John's to continue to be recognized as a health care provider for women's total health care needs.
"I like that all of the providers of women's care here work in unity. We want people to think of St. John’s when they think of women's health care,” Joseph says.
Litherland says she joined St. John's for several reasons: she said she wanted to return home to Springfield, she liked the other physicians at St. John’s women’s services, and because she was already familiar with St. John's – her father, surgeon Francis Corry, M.D., retired from St. John's. Litherland attended medical school and completed her residency at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
St. John's Center for Women is open 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday and can be reached at 417-841-3890.