ST. PAUL - Young people completing their post-secondary education and returning to rural communities to enhance the lives of residents and the overall well-being of their hometowns is a concept that plays well on the economic development front of small-town Alberta. However, attracting professionals to take up practice in rural areas is not easily accomplished.
Amy Bespalko has done just that with the opening of her business Shift Imaging in St. Paul which is offering area residents access to a scope of medical imaging services not previously available in the community.
Bespalko is excited to be back in St. Paul doing something she loves after having trained as a sonographer at NAIT. She says making the decision to come home wasn’t difficult and she’s returned with a business venture focused on enhancing medical services in the community.
“After starting to work and seeing more what was out there in this field, I realized that this was something you could do, it was something that was possible and I just thought it would be really good for this community,” Bespalko says with an energy that reflects her excitement for the adventure she has begun.
Following her completion of what she describes as a “very fast-tracked program,” at NAIT, which included an intense three-semester practicum program rotating through a number of health care settings both in the city and in rural areas, Bespalko began her career as a sonographer in Edmonton and then later in Grande Prairie.
To begin with, Shift Imaging is able to offer diagnostic ultrasound services which means people require a referral or a requisition from their doctor to obtain the services she is currently able to provide.
“Their doctor can send the requisition directly to us, or they can give it to the patient to bring to us. Something I’d like to stress is that a lot of people associate private clinics with ‘oh no, I have to pay,’ but ultrasound is one of those services where you do not,” Bespalko says, explaining the fee is covered by Alberta Health.
The advantage of receiving the services at a clinic such as Shift Imaging is that it is a more relaxed and personal environment as compared to a busy hospital setting. Perhaps even more importantly, is the new clinic is able to provide diagnostic services not otherwise available in St. Paul, specifically echocardiography, pediatric scanning for all ages, peripheral arterial ultrasounds, Nuchal Translucency scans, and transrectal prostrate ultrasounds.
“I can do a lot of specialty infant scanning, pyloric stenosis and neonatal brain ultrasounds. So, quite a few things that weren’t even available in St. Paul. If it’s needed, they had to travel to Bonnyville, Cold Lake or to Edmonton. So, I can bring that right into St. Paul which is so awesome for the patients.”
While Shift Imaging has only just opened its doors, Bespalko is already focused on next steps and what lies ahead for her clinic.
“I’ve started with diagnostic ultrasound but there’s some pretty big hopes and dreams that I will expand to my own building one day, that I would love to get outpatient x-ray, and potentially, long-range, bringing things like CT (scans) to St. Paul. So, not just limiting myself to ultrasound because that’s what I do but branching out to more and more diagnostic imaging just to help the community and get some better patient care and health care here.”
