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Community Care of West Virginia to open two new locations in Buckhannon

By AUSTIN WEIFORD

The Exponent Telegram

BUCKHANNON — Community Care of West Virginia is planning to open two new locations in Buckhannon for the new year.

One of the new locations, to be called CareXpress and Pediatrics, will be in the Northridge Plaza, next to Buffalo Wild Wings. The other location, to be called Community Care of Buckhannon, will be at 37 W. Main St., across from the courthouse.

The current Community Care location, located on the ground floor of the Buckhannon Medical Center, will close Wednesday, and the location in Northridge Plaza will open Thursday. The West Main Street location will open Jan. 2.

Richard Simon, CEO of Community Care of West Virginia, said the chance would help the company’s team of physicians and staff serve patients and their families more efficiently.

“The decision to move these facilities will allow Community Care of West Virginia to better provide the residents of Buckhannon with the level of health care they have come to expect,” Simon said.

Patricia Collett, director of medical services for Community Care of West Virginia, said one of the biggest reasons for the move was limited space in the current location.

“Our Buckhannon location has offered walk-in care from the ground floor of Buckhannon Medical Center since 2008,” Collett said. “Around 2013, when gas prices made transportation prohibitive for some of our patients, we began offering chronic care from that location as well. Since then, our patient population has grown exponentially.”

Collett said those added appointments became hard to maintain in the current space, in which three to four medical provider work at a time, sharing only seven exam rooms.

“A couple years ago, we applied for a federal expansion grant to get these new locations,” Collett said. “It was a Health Resources and Administration grant for the amount of $1 million.”

Collett said the services currently offered are essentially going to be split between the two new locations, which will create more room for medical providers and make care more efficient.

Ronna Dittman, director of marketing for Community Care of West Virginia, said the locations would have the same medical providers as the current location.

“We just needed more room,” Dittman said. “Our Northridge location will offer walk-in acute care for non-chronic, non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries. This includes patients with the cold or flu, minor lacerations, sprains, and other things like that. It will also house our pediatric service with our pediatrician, Dr. Raymond Leonard.”

In addition to Leonard, the Northridge location will have medical providers Physician’s Assistant Nicholas Baker and Nurse Practitioner Jennifer Lambert, who will care for walk-in patients.

Dittman said the West Main Street location will be inside a historic building that has been newly renovated. The location will provide service for chronic, continuing-care patients who need to make regular appointments for ailments like high blood pressure, depression, high cholesterol, asthma, weight management, regular check-ups and more.

Providers at the West Main Street location will be Drs. Aimee Whitehair and Gregory Peters and physician’s assistants Allyson Andrews and Joshua Baker.

“One of the benefits is that we’ll be offering expanded hours for primary care service at our Main Street location,” Collett said. “We’re also working on expanding our services provided to offer some telemedicine options, as well as increasing our provider staff, which will shorten wait times. We also offer open access scheduling, so patients can make an appointment and come in on the same day.”

Collett said the Northridge location will offer access to care seven days a week, with 24-hour on-call services.

Community Care of West Virginia runs 15 community health center locations, 43 school-based health sites, seven pharmacies and one dental office, all located throughout Central West Virginia.

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