MATTAWA - Staff members of the Mattawa Community Medical Clinic are excited that for the first time in four years they have a woman doctor on staff.

"Many women prefer to be seen by a woman doctor," clinic director Dana Fox said.

The addition is not just any woman doctor. It is the medical clinic's medical director of the last three years, Dr. April Biggs, MD. She was supervising the clinic from her post at the Grandview Medical Clinic. Now she is on site here.

For four years, clinic patients have had the choice of three male providers. They are Dr. Dan Sloan, D.O., physician's assistant Trent Hart and nurse practitioner Jeff Edwards.

"We have the patient load to support me moving up here," Biggs said.

Biggs, a native of Wynne, Arkansas, will be at the Mattawa Clinic four days a week. She will continue to dedicate one day a week to the Grandview Clinic.

"She has delivered a lot of babies at the Sunnyside hospital," Fox said.

Fox added the new arrangement will mean that many of Mattawa's babies will be born at the same hospital.

"This is really exciting," Fox said.