After ten years in business, Dr. Heather McLeod and her team at Niverville Family Chiropractic are enjoying the upscale clinic at their new location—106 Main Street in Niverville. McLeod is joined there by her long-time receptionist Gwen Sawa and colleagues Dr. Ruth Hitchcock (chiropractor) and Dr. Robert Lecker (optometrist).
McLeod is thrilled at the opportunity to relocate to the town’s new office building, which provides the team with a better layout and improved use of space. The new clinic has increased by 500 square feet, allowing McLeod and Lecker their own private exam rooms, which were shared at the previous location.
“We’re going to have semi-private adjusting areas,” says McLeod, unlike the previous open concept. “There will be a closed room if someone prefers to get adjusted [in privacy]. There’s a whole room dedicated to [the x-ray area].”
Though the chiropractic team has been providing x-ray technology for years, the old x-ray equipment has been retired and a newer, more sophisticated system has been installed.
“We use technology to assess nervous system function, which we’ve been doing for a long time,” McLeod adds. “It uses three different tests to look at how the autonomic system is functioning: thermography, surface EMG (electromyogram), and heartrate variability.”
The new x-ray equipment is equipped with digital imaging, and images can be read in-house by both McLeod and Hitchcock, making patient diagnosis faster and more efficient.
Thoughtful planning went into ensuring patient comfort in the new clinic. A larger waiting area and a kids play zone are integral to the new floorplan.
“I would estimate that 35 to 40 percent of the people we see are under 18,” McLeod says. “So we have lots of kids that come to get taken care of. Lots of families.”
McLeod has a real heart for pregnant women and new moms, as well as the little ones they bring into the world. Pregnancy and childbirth, she says, is not only traumatic to the mother’s body, but the newborn’s too.
“We had one mom stop in here on her way home from the hospital,” she marvels. “Lately we’ve had a lot of new moms and their babies.”
For this reason, McLeod is considering holding classes in the near future.
“We recently sent out a survey to some of our patients to see how we can best serve the community,” McLeod says. “When I had a baby, there was a class that I was a part of and it was really nice to get together with people in the same boat. Especially first-time moms. So we’ve actually been looking at creating a class around that.”
Families are not their only focus, though. McLeod says they see patients of all ages, including seniors right into their eighties. Together, McLeod and Hitchcock have 37 years of experience in chiropractic medicine.
Clinic hours will remain the same, meeting patient’s needs with a variety of hours from Monday through Saturday. The new clinic provides ample parking space at the rear of the building with access to the main floor clinic from the front and rear.
