New clinic comes to Lakeside

By CALEB M. SOPTELEAN

Bigfork Eagle

A new medical clinic in Lakeside is up and running.

The Westshore Medical Clinic had a soft opening Dec. 2 and will host a grand opening Monday, Dec. 16, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 306 Stoner Loop. Snacks and goodies will be provided and the public is encouraged to stop by for a visit.

Walk-ins are welcome. Reservations can be made by calling 844-0541.

The 2,931-square-foot clinic features four exam rooms, a procedure room and the ability to conduct complete x-rays. Digital x-rays are sent over a T1 communications line to Kalispell Regional Medical Center, so exams are diagnosed speedily by radiologists in Kalispell.

“It’s a big deal for our clinic to have a full digital x-ray so people don’t have to go to Kalispell,” office manager Diane Kivela said. She explained that a portable unit doesn’t offer the availability for spinal x-rays for adults, for example.

The T1 line allows the clinic to have a “super fast” x-ray, Dr. Jon Rubright said. Rubright serves as medical director for the clinic. He is available Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Dr. Mona Cuthbert is in on Thursdays, while Susan McEwen, a nurse practitioner, comes in on Fridays.

Rubright worked as a doctor in Fort Collins, Colo., for 25 years before “semi-retiring” to the Whitefish area. After moving in September he called the Kalispell Regional Medical Center about possible employment and found out about the Lakeside opening.

“I, by lucky circumstance, ended up here,” he said, noting his parents lived in the Flathead area in the 1940s and 1950s.

The Westshore Medical Clinic is housed in the recently remodeled Lakeside Town Center, which also features a Grateful Bread restaurant that opened in August.

A fitness center is slated to open on the second level of the building the first week of January.

The Tamarack Brewery plans to add another restaurant to the building at some point, replacing the Bluestone Grill, which closed a number of years ago.

An extensive remodel of the facility was started in March after Steve Patyk bought it.