Family medicine physician will join Floyd County Medical Center staff, after Air Force duty

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Add another physician to the list of health care providers who will call Charles City home.

The Floyd County Medical Center announced that Dr. Janean Wedeking has accepted a position as a family medicine physician at the hospital and clinic, including delivering babies.

Wedeking is currently completing her residency in family medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, where she is also a captain in the Air Force at Offutt Air Force Base.

Wedeking said she went to medical school on a military scholarship, and after she finishes her residency in September she will have four years as an active duty physician in the Air Force.

Rod Nordeng, Floyd County Medical Center administrator, said Wedeking will start her full-time practice in Charles City effective Sept. 30, 2024.

But expect to see her around town before then.

“Over the next four years my full-time employment will be stationed somewhere in the United States at an Air Force base,” Wedeking told the Press in a phone interview.

“However, … I do have the opportunity to take leave, my vacation time, and moonlight, so to speak, to come to Charles City” once she completes her residency.

“It’s allowing me to start becoming part of the community, taking care of patients, hopefully doing some delivering, and getting to know the people, the community and the physicians there in Charles City,” Wedeking said.

Wedeking is already very familiar with Iowa. She grew up in Coggon, in the eastern part of the state, and graduated high school from Iowa City West. She received her undergraduate degree from Wartburg in Waverly, then received her medical degree at the Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine, in 2016.

“I am the first person in my family to go to graduate school and have a postgraduate degree,” she said.

Wedeking and her husband, Derek, have two daughters, Margo, almost 4, and Milly, age 1.

Derek is from Clarksville, and they met while Janean was working as an undergrad in the emergency department at the Waverly Health Clinic.

“Derek currently stays at home with the girls,” Wedeking said. “Ultimately we plan on owning — I don’t know what I want to call it — maybe a sustainable hobby farm, with livestock and bees and chickens and trees and a garden. That’s what we intend to do in the future, and he’ll manage that.”

Wedeking said she made a commitment to the medical center this far in advance because it fits with what they were looking for and it’s close to their families.

“I really wanted to find a home,” she said. “By finding a home this far out I could start becoming part of the community even in my four years in the military. Even though it is so far out, I do want to start creating a footprint and get established as a provider in the community.”

Wedeking said she was attracted to the Floyd County Medical Center because it fits her philosophy on care, including obstetrics.

“I want to do OB care, … and ultimately to be able to do continuity OB practice, meaning you’re the one who takes care of the patient during the pregnancy and you’re the one who delivers them, as opposed to the model that most communities are moving to, which is you have one doctor on call in the hospital who delivers you if you come into labor and delivery, not necessarily the provider you’ve been seeing the entire time of your pregnancy.

Wedeking says she likes a saying by an attending physician at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, that family medicine is “from the womb to the tomb.”

“The old-school definition of a family medicine physician is that you take care of everything, from delivering babies, to the elderly folks in the nursing home, and being in a rural community it’s important as a family physician that I can provide all those services,” she said.

“Something that’s special being a family medical physician is you have such continuity with your patients. What better continuity than delivering babies, taking care of the moms, and then seeing them through as they age and taking care of the whole family beyond that,” Wedeking said.

“I think it’s such a special bond you create with the patients and you’re part of their lives in such a special way. I think you can provide ultimately the best care because you know holistically about the entire person and about their family and they way they play into the community,” she said.

Wedeking said she was also impressed by the staff at the medical center.

“On my interview at the hospital the people were amazing,” she said. “So many people have been there 15, 20, 25 years. If you have so many people at the hospital who have been there that long you know that it’s a really good place to work and they treat their employees well.”

Wedeking said she is eager to become part of the community.

“We enjoy being active, like bike riding, going to the park, being outside. We also enjoy sustainable living. My husband is a very avid home brewer. I like to sew garments, and we enjoy gardening including canning, freezing, composting, all of those things,” she said.

Wedeking will become the third new doctor announced to join the medical center staff in the past several years.

Dr. Angela VanGilder, a general surgeon, joined the staff in May 2017. Dr. Michelle Im will begin working as a family medicine physician after she completes her residency in September this year.