Baker

Haddix

ELKINS — With more than 50 staff members and 15 offered specialities, the new Elkins Corridor Medical Center is setting its sights on being an “all-in-one” clinic with its current capabilities, and with future expansions already in the works, officials said.

Members of the media were invited by WVU Medicine United Hospital Center to tour the new 38,000-square-foot facility, as well as to speak with several of the facility’s doctors, before the clinic’s ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, ahead of its opening day on Sept. 9.

On Sept. 9, the facility’s Rapid Care Clinic, family medicine and orthopedics will be available for patients. On Sept. 15, more of the facility’s specialties, including GI, pulmonary, ENT and audiology, will be rolled out for the public. Heart and vascular and cardiology will be unveiled at the facility on Sept. 29.

The Medical Center will offer x-rays, laboratory work, cancer infusion services, CTE, MRI, ECHO, ultrasounds, regular ultrasounds, family medicine, orthopedics, audiology, ENT, GI, physiatry, advanced imaging and more.

Dr. Alyson Leo, a family medicine physician at the facility and also an Elkins native, described the Elkins Corridor Medical Center as “wonderful” and stated that it was “so nice” to have all of the specialties in one place.

“In Elkins, there’s a lot of fragmented care where you have to travel long distances to do things, and it’s really going to help the people in the community to come here and do almost everything in one place,” Leo told members of the media. “A lot of people went to Buckhannon, to St. Joe’s, for labs, for imaging, for things like that, and then, for speciality care, most people had to drive up to Bridgeport. So between Buckhannon and Bridgeport, it was not uncommon for one patient to have to go to, like, three different places, to me here in Elkins, get something I ordered in Buckhannon and then see a specialist in Bridgeport.”

When asked what she believed the residents of the area and future patients should know about the medical center, Leo said the main thing people should be aware of is “you can do everything all in the building.”

“All of our rooms are very diverse,” Elkins native Abby Haddix, the Elkins Corridor Medical Center Director of Ambulatory Services, MSN, RN, said Thursday morning. “We can switch in and out as needed for specialties.”

The facility has two procedure rooms that any of the practitioners and providers can use. The two rooms can be utilized for any procedure, or for patients brought in by gurney. Outfitted as negative pressure rooms, those two spaces have the capabilities for possible advanced procedures, Haddix explained.

Dr. Nicholas Baker, an associate professor of thoracic surgery with WVU Medicine UHC, will be coming to the Elkins Corridor Medical Center at least twice a month for two days to offer pulmonary and lung surgery care.

“Lung cancer is a problem for the world, and if you look at, within the United States, it’s the deadliest cancer that we face,” Baker told members of the media. “We can’t expect people to travel to the major cities within the state to get screening CT scans, which only take about five minutes to do. If we can do those locally, we’ll get way more people to do those, we’ll catch way more lung cancer in the early stage, and if I can catch those at a stage one, we can effectively cure those.”

In the out-patient lab area with four draw stations, the facility offers point of care testing. Haddix explained that the testing would give patients immediate results.

“We do that for our infusion patients because when they first come in, they have to have some bloodwork done so that (the physicians) know how to adjust their treatment plans, and we have that capability here,” Haddix said before explaining it also applies to the facility’s Rapid Care unit. “From urinalysis, if you have COVID, flu, strep… CBC (complete blood count), chem 7, we’re able to take care of those patients with those immediate results for them right there in this space.”

Haddix added that, if anything did have to be sent on to UCH for testing, patients would receive a call with results that evening or the next day.

The Medical Center’s Rapid Care unit offers same-day walk-in care. Open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week, Rapid Care will only be closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas, Haddix said. 

Dr. Susan Bobes, a physician with the Rapid Care unit who has worked in the Elkins area for 28 years, explained that Rapid Care follows the urgent care model, with the goal of guiding patients to where they need to be in regard to their care. The unit treats illnesses from common colds and fevers to other infections, as well as minor burns, fractures and sprains.

“If you have a GI bug, we can start an IV, we can give you fluids, we can check your CBC, see if it’s elevated,” Haddix said. “Is there an infection? We can do ultrasounds. Is it your appendix? We have a CT scan machine. We can take care of these patients so they can be treated right here and get you to where you need to go.”

Haddix explained that each of the eight Rapid Care exam rooms is outfitted with a gurney-type bed, known as a Stryker bed.

Later on, Rapid Care will be expanded into 12 exam rooms, Haddix stated, with its own separate entrance and lobby to help mitigate the amount of exposure between healthy and unhealthy patients in the building.

When asked if there was a timeline for the expansion, Haddix said there was not one currently, but added that a retail pharmacy will also be added to the building.

“Really trying to think of all-in-one care, all in one building in that network,” Haddix told The Inter-Mountain.

Though the medical center will be opening on Sept. 9, the cancer infusion clinic will not be open to the public until Monday, Sept. 29. The infusion clinic has six infusion bays, three additional private infusion bays and six exam rooms. Bay services will also be available for those who need non-oncology fusions, such as iron infusions.

Dr. Meredith Williams, director of Cancer Services at UHC, explained that the infusion bays at the Elkins Corridor Medical Center will offer amenities to help enhance the comfort of patients who have to spend a lot of time at the bays. There will be a kitchenette area with snacks, as well as cellphone and electronic device chargers and a blanket warmer.

Williams also explained that the space was built “with growth in mind” and stated that they are open to expanding the oncology services if necessary.

“The quality (people) can expect here is the highest level of service and care,” Williams told The Inter-Mountain.