Dr. Whipple Joins Glasgow Clinic Staff

Dr. Robert Whipple is the newest addition to the Glasgow Clinic Primary Care staff as an internal medicine physician and has started seeing adult patients as a primary physician. He comes to Glasgow after serving patients in the Las Vegas, Nev., area for the last 20 years in a private practice with partners. After growing up in Las Vegas, raising a family there, and serving the patients of the area, he and his wife, Stephany, decided Vegas wasn't for them any longer and wanted to move to a smaller area. "It's my hometown. I got a special place in my heart for Vegas. It's so big, it's like two, three million people, it's nuts," stated Dr. Whipple.

After leaving the private practice, Dr. Whipple started the process of opening his own practice when his wife looked at him one morning and stated, "This is our chance to get out of this city. I want to go to a small town." That conversation was the snowball effect in Dr. Whipple applying and looking in different areas to start over in. "The first job that was found in my search, my wife was searching for jobs, I was searching for jobs, was this Connie Brunelle, in Glasgow, Montana....My wife and I talked to Connnie on that call for an hour and a half. And we fell in love with Connie," explained Dr. Whipple. While continuing to explore other options, Dr. Whipple also applied to other small town locations, completed interviews and site visits, with Glasgow being the last location to visit.

"We got off the plane in Billings, we rented a car and threw our suitcases in it. I said to Stephany, 'Everybody is really nice huh.' I went 'Montana is a place for us. This is our place.' Everybody we met from that moment on, at the airport, the days of our trip, we met just really nice people." reflected Dr. Whipple. "As we were driving from the airport to Glasgow, it's beautiful big sky, mountains, trees, valleys, planes. It was just beautiful, beautiful drive in October. We fell in love with the landscape but it was the people, experiences, we found ourselves wanting."

Dr. Whipple graduated with his undergraduate degree from Utah State University in Logan, Utah, and after working in construction, he enlisted in the Air Force where he served for seven years. After the drive to continue his education wouldn't go away, he attended medical school at the University of Nevada School of Medicine in Reno, Nev., where he graduated Doctor of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency at the University Medical Center in Las Vegas.

As an internal medicine physician, his primary patients are those 17 years of age and older. "I have the greatest job there is and it's because of the relationships I get to have with patients. I could say one of the saddest things for me right now is my patients in Vegas. I love the relationships I have with my patients and what an honor it is, to be someone's primary doctor," said Dr. Whipple. "I love these little old couples. I had dozens where they've been married for like 70 years and they're like 90 years old and they come in together, every appointment. They know I care about them, and they trusted me."

While serving the patients of Glasgow, Valley County and beyond, Dr. Whipple brings his practicing philosophies: being a service to his patients, and continued learning.

"How can I serve you? Help me, I help you. It might be in a way that you weren't expecting. It might be exactly the way you were expecting. But how can I help you today," stated Dr. Whipple. "When I practice medicine to be of service to my clients, things go pretty darn good. If I'm practicing to make a lot of money, things don't go so well...it's an unpleasant life."

He stated it's an honor to help people through their fears, pains, illnesses and even though the service might not be what they wanted, he is there to help and work with the patient for solutions.

He also admits that no one can master internal medicine, though he is confident in what he knows, he does acknowledge he doesn't know everything and is up front about working together with the patient to get the necessary answers. "Patients teach me stuff every day. I don't have to know more than the patient does just because I'm the doctor. I can be wrong, most importantly I know how to say it."

Dr. Whipple is now accepting new patients at the Glasgow Clinic Primary Care. To schedule an appointment call the clinic at 406-228-3400.