Small-town doc has simple tastes

Dr. Jean Paul, D.O., a family practitioner at Sun Life Family Health Center in Maricopa, doesn’t drive a Lexus, Cadillac or any other vehicle you might expect a doctor to drive.

“I drive a Camry with four cylinders,” she said.

What’s her short list of the things that make her happy?

“Two cats, a boyfriend and a bicycle … and I like to travel.”

Paul received her doctor of osteopathic medicine degree in 1997 from the University of Osteopathic Medicine and Health Sciences in Des Moines, Iowa. After completing her residency at Tucson General Hospital, she began working at Sun Life in Maricopa in 2000.

The former Iowan has lived in Queen Creek since working for Sun Life.

In 2000, Paul was the only doctor in a 20-mile radius and, as the population of Maricopa began to explode, was seeing between 30 to 40 patients a day, she said.

“It was a heavy load,” she says. “We were the fastest-growing city in the country and the waiting list to see me was eight to 10 weeks.”
The office, located at North John Wayne Parkway and West Hathaway Avenue, is now seeing about 50 to 60 patients a day, but Paul got some help when physician assistant David Sorenson began working for Sun Life in 2006.

“We take everyone, from newborns to patients of all ages,” Paul says. “We have walk-in hours for our patients who are sick every morning at 8 a.m. and every afternoon at 1 p.m.”

Sun Life Family Health Center is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Casa Grande that provides health care throughout Pinal County.

Paul says Sun Life is the only company she has worked for as a doctor; she likes it because she can focus on her patients.