STE. GENEVIEVE, Mo. — Ste. Genevieve County Memorial Hospital (SGCMH) Medical Staff welcomes Deniane John, MD, to offer primary care services to patients at Pointe Basse Family Health Care.
Dr. Matthew Bosner, SGCMH Chief of Staff looks forward to her starting soon.
“We are thrilled that Dr. John is joining our team,” stated Dr. Bosner, SGCMH Chief of Staff. “She has excellent training, is very personable and committed to preventive care for our community.”
Dr. John attended medical school at the University of the West Indies, and completed her three-year family medicine residency at the University of Illinois, College of Medicine, Rockford, IL.
“I’m from a tiny island in the Caribbean called the Commonwealth of Dominica,” she said. “It’s very rural, very mountainous, and has a population of about 50,000 people. That’s part of the reason I like the Midwest—the river and nature, so I’m looking forward to Ste. Genevieve.”
From a very young age, Dr. John has wanted to be a physician.
“I think I wanted to practice medicine since I was about 14,” she explained. “There was something about being able to help individuals and figure out the puzzle of what’s wrong that appealed to me. Teaching kind of fit that bill, too. But, when I was trying to decide between medicine and teaching, medicine won out.”
Zeroing in on what aspect of medicine to pursue wasn’t as easy. Initially she planned to do orthopedic surgery, but after much thought, she decided general surgery would be more challenging. There wasn’t an opening for general surgery rotation at her medical school at the time, so she pursued family medicine instead, which suited her just fine.
“I enjoy taking care of a wide variety of people, and developing relationships with my patients over time,” she said. “I like sitting down and talking to my patients and hearing a variety of comments in a day. A patient may come in for one concern and after talking with them, you discover a lot more. That’s part of the challenge of medicine.”
Dr. John also has a special interest in women’s medicine and geriatrics.
“Regardless of the specialty, what I like most is being able to spend time with patients through the full spectrum of their life,” she said. “That’s very rewarding.”
Dr. John’s care philosophy is pretty simple.
“The main thing that I’ve found is to treat my patients the way I would like to be treated,” she said. “When people come to the doctor, they are particularly vulnerable, so I try to put myself in their shoes and think how I would like to be treated in a similar situation and that tends to guide me pretty well.”
Initially, Ste. Genevieve wasn’t on Dr. John’s radar, but after visiting and reading up on the town, she’s looking forward to coming.
“I know that the town has quite a history and has excellent industry,” she said. “It’s rare to find a rural community that is thriving in so many different ways and yet retaining some of its original characteristics. That was something that appealed to me very much. This will be my first position after residency, and I want to make a good impression. I’m really looking forward to becoming a part of the community.”
When not practicing medicine, Dr. John loves to garden, bake and read–hobbies many of her patients share, no doubt.
Dr. John treats a variety of acute and chronic medical conditions and, performs some basic procedures.
She is accepting new patients at Pointe Basse Family Health Care located at 753 Pointe Basse, Ste. Genevieve, Mo.