Sue Sitter/PCT Dr. Josalynne "Josy" Hoff sits in her new office at HAMC's Johnson Clinic in Rugby.

Although most new Rugby residents mention the community’s “small town feel” when they talk about the place they call home, Dr. Josalynne “Josy” Hoff has a different take.

“It’s way bigger than where I grew up,” said Hoff, who spent her childhood on a family farm near Bowdon, a tiny town in southern Wells County.

“Bowdon has 70 people now,” Hoff smiled.

Hoff, a family medicine physician at Heart of America Medical Center’s Johnson Clinic joined the staff in August. Her husband, who grew up in Hillsboro, is a pharmacist at the clinic.

Hoff said she and her husband find their new community welcoming “for sure.”

Although Hoff said most of her family members don’t have careers in the medical field, she spent time in high school job shadowing medical practitioners including her mother, who works in Carrington as a physician’s assistant.

“She always told me to do whatever makes me happy,” Hoff said of her mother.

“I have always wanted to be a physician, as long as I can remember,” Hoff indicated. “And then, once I got old enough to do job shadowing and go to college, I still liked it.”

Hoff didn’t initially begin her career in the medical field as a physician.

“I was a respiratory therapist before I went to medical school,” Hoff noted. Hoff had received her education to practice in that field at the University of Mary in Bismarck.

“I went to medical school in Grand Forks at UND and did my training there and in Bismarck before coming here,” Hoff added.

Hoff said she hopes to bring services in women’s health to patients at the Johnson Clinic and branch out into more areas of healthcare.

“As of now, I’m the only one who’s doing some women’s health procedures like colposcopies or IUD insertions,” Hoff noted.

“I’m hoping to get involved in the pain clinic. I’m hoping to make that program better,” Hoff continued.

“I’m hoping to learn some endoscopy stuff. I’m working with Dr. Skipper. Hopefully we can have services available as far as that goes as well,” she added.

Hoff is accepting new patients. For more information, call the Johnson Clinic at 776-5455.