THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 8, 1995 TAG: 9506070200
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Long : 117 lines
WHEN DR. LYNNE Wiser Stockman, husband, Tom, and toddler son, Drew, moved to Bennetts Creek this spring, she felt immediately at home.
Growing up in a military family taught her to adjust quickly to changing addresses. Besides, her father's career previously brought the family to Portsmouth, her mother's hometown.
Stockman remembers starting kindergarten there and returning for part of her senior year at Churchland High School, the year she was on the girls tennis team that won the Southeastern District championship.
By the time Stockman received her high school diploma - from Nuremberg American School in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1980 - she had attended a dozen other schools in the United States.
Now, Stockman will offer folks in northeast Suffolk, Churchland and Western Branch another medical care option close to home - at North Suffolk Family Medicine on Route 17 in the Bennetts Creek area of Suffolk.
Sponsored by Obici Memorial Hospital, the facility offers primary care to all ages - newborns to geriatric patients.
``I focus a lot on preventive health care, making sure people have their mammograms, pap smears, exams and blood work,'' Stockman said. ``We will have the capacity to do acute care and X-rays, but we want people to come to us for their primary care, to consider us their medical home for the family.''
Stockman comes from Louisville, Ky., where she had been in private practice. Stockman's parents, Charlene and Robert Wiser, also were fond of Hampton Roads. When Tom Wiser retired from the Army, they settled in Bennetts Creek.
Stockman and her husband are planning to build a new home on land adjoining her parents' property.
The region's temperate climate and easy access to the water were attractive to the Stockmans because both enjoy fishing, crabbing and golf.
Bennett Creek was especially appealing because it meant closeness to family as well as easy commuting for Tom Stockman, who earned a master's degree in divinity at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, has accepted an internship as a chaplain at Riverside Medical Center in Newport News.
The Stockmans hope to eventually combine their talents as a team doing mission work during their vacations.
Stockman knew from the time she was 14 that she wanted to be a physician. After graduating from Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, she went on to the University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kansas City.
``I had a strong leaning toward pediatrics, but in medical school I discovered a liking for the diversity of family practice,'' she said. ``Also, in family practice you get to see the results of what you do, unlike emergency medicine, where you only see the patient once.''
Stockman made her mark as the first osteopathic physician to do an internship and residency at Riverside Regional Medical Center.
How does osteopathic medicine differ from the traditional allopathic medicine? Founded by Andrew Taylor Still, an American medical practitioner who first defined its principles in 1874, osteopathic medicine promotes a holistic approach to good health by addressing mental, emotional, spritual and physical aspects of well-being rather than focusing solely on the disease, Stockman said.
``It is important to know how the patient is affected by what is going on around him,'' she added.
Osteopathic physicians follow traditional medical procedures and prescribe medications, but they also use osteopathic manipulation as an adjunct treatment.
``Manipulation does not cure everything, but hands-on treatment of the patient is appropriate in some cases, including acute back sprains or muscular skeletal problems,'' Stockman said.
For the patient, it is the best of both branches of medicine, according to Stockman, who also is certified in family practice by the American Academy of Family Physicians.
The biggest challenge Stockman sees in opening a new practice is attracting new patients to the office to become acquainted with her and with the practice.
``I talk a lot to my patients,'' she said. ``I try to inform them about what I do and why I do it because that lends to better care.''
Obici Hospital saw a need for more primary care doctors, especially in the north Suffolk area, where new residential developments are boosting the population.
``Dr. Stockman's desire to locate in northeast Suffolk matched our plans for that area, and we felt the the new office would be a wonderful addition to the existing medical offices up there,'' said William C. Giermak, Obici president.
An open house is planned this month. ILLUSTRATION: EXPANDING MEDICAL CARE
ON THE COVER
[Color Photo]
Dr. Lynne W. Stockman, right, consults with Albert Rawls as she
checks on her new medical office. Staff photo by John H. Sheally II
AT A GLANCE
North Suffolk Family Medicine
Food Lion Shopping Center, Route 17, Bennett's Creek
Call 686-5807
Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
``I talk a lot to my patients. . . . That lends to better care,''
says Dr. Lynne Stockman.
Dr. Lynne Wiser Stockman, left, has opened North Suffolk Family
Medicine on Route 17 in the Bennetts Creek area of Suffolk. THe
facility, sponsored by Obici Memorial Hospital, will hold an open
house later this month.
The Stockman family, right: Tom, Drew and Lynne have plans to build
a house next to Lynne's parents in Bennetts Creek.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB