"Enter at your own risk" reads the sign on the Family Care Center in Winfield, Kansas. Walking around the construction zone that is their new workplace, Drs. Tessa Rohrberg and Amanda Steventon know they're responsible.

"They did this for us," Steventon said.  

Ultimately, the inconvenience of construction workers, dust and taped-off areas will be a good thing for the residents of Winfield and the town's two newest physicians. Additions to the clinic will triple its size, to 12,000 square feet, and dramatically increase access to care in this south-central Kansas city.  

"New patients were waiting several months to see a doctor," Rohrberg said, adding that there was also a shortage of female family physicians in town. No longer.  

Rohrberg and Steventon, who finished the KU family medicine residency program at Wesley Medical Center this summer, started their practices here earlier this month. The two first met in medical school, on KU's Kansas City campus. They remained close friends even after Rohrberg moved and completed her medical education at the KU School of Medicine-Wichita.  

"We are soul sisters from a different mother, I think," Steventon said.  

They share a lot in common, starting with small-town backgrounds. Rohrberg grew up in Sharon Springs, in far western Kansas, while Steventon is from Maple City, about 20 miles from Winfield. Both are married with young sons. They both did their rural family medicine residency rotations at the Winfield clinic where they now work, which was founded by Drs. Bryan Davis and Bryan Dennett just over a decade ago.  

The two physicians are also active in the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), an interest that began in their days as residents. Each feels a passion to advocate for more preventive care, patient-centered care, and vaccinations.  

"It's (AAFP) the only way that family physicians can influence health policy, which is really important," Rohrberg said.  

Rohrberg and Steventon  grew to like Winfield, the clinic, and its patients during their rotations, and the feeling was mutual. Despite a bustling downtown and location that makes it the hub of a sizable agricultural area, Rohrberg said, "It still has that small town feel. You can walk down the street and people wave at you as they drive by."  

Like the clinic's other physicians, Rohrberg and Steventon will operate as sole practitioners, sharing space, expenses and employees such as receptions and billing clerks. They'll each have their own medical staffs and -- with the new construction -- each will have her own wing of four examination rooms while sharing two minor surgery rooms. The big difference between residency and practice is "you're officially out on your own," Steventon said, although they're happy to be able to consult one another and their older colleagues.  

Rohrberg's first Winfield patients include a 3-year-old in for a wellness exam, a young adult suffering from acute headaches and an older man whose blood she was monitoring following surgery. Steventon saw a married couple in their '90s, working up a complete medical and social history of the family.  

"When you start to establish a rapport with them, you want to share a little bit of yourself, so they want to come back to you," Steventon said. "If they trust you and want to bring their whole family to you, I think that's pretty special," Rohrberg added.  

Both plan to provide full-spectrum care, with Steventon focusing more on obstetrics and deliveries and Rohrberg on geriatrics and hospice care. Steventon wanted to be a pediatric surgeon until her rural rotation as a third-year KU medical student took her to a family practice in Tribune, Kansas. "I got to see kids and babies and geriatrics. I loved it so much that I knew this is what I wanted to do."  

Rohrberg has enjoyed taking care of elderly patients since working as a nurse's aide in a nursing home while still in high school. "It started way back then," she said. "I still find it very meaningful."