Staff Reporter

CLINGMAN - Hugh Chat-ham Memorial Hospital has taken the Clingman Medical Center into its fold, making a long term commitment to run the clinic.

"We feel its a great partnership," the hospital's CEO Stephen Pennington said Monday. "We've taken care of patients from that community for a long time, and I think this reinforces that."

The Clingman Medical Center will refer patients to Hugh Chatham and in return Hugh Chatham will supply and staff the clinic. "It helps that we are a larger organization, and we have more resources," Pennington said. "That allows us to staff the clinic more easliy than the Clingman Medical Board has done in the past."

Pennington said the Clingman board will still be actively engaged in the man agement of the practice, and he and the rest of the Hugh Chatham staff will work very closely with the board and the Medical Center staff to make sure the demands of the community are met.

"The financial burden of the operation of the center is on the hospital." Chairman of the Clingman Medical Board Bill Davis said. "We participate with the hostpital, and we are the eyes and ears to the ground in the community. We are representatives that can feed that back to the hospital. That within itself has allowed us to keep it a community-based entity."

"We've invested about $170,000 at this point with equipment, rennovation and start-up cost making up most of that price," Pennington said. "I think that illustrates our commitment to the Clingman/Ronda community, that we are here for the long haul."

Dr. Howard Nabors the main doctor on staff at Clingman said the opportunties for patients to recieve better care will come from the change. "I think its good for the community that they affliate with Hugh Chatham," Nabors said. "It puts them in that framework of specialists and specialty care there."

Nabors said the Clingman Medical Center will act as a go-between for the outlying communities around Hugh Chatham. "As the hospital in Elkin grows, I think that for a community based hospital (Hugh Chatham) this facility is in a prime position to funnel people into Hugh Chatham from four counties," Nabors said.

Sherry Parks, office manager of the Clingman Medical Center, said patients are being assigned a new chart as they come in, with the number currently being at around 800 patients.

Nabors said before the switch over the office would see 20 people a day at the most, but now sees anywhere from 30 to 40.

Built in 1975, the Clingman Medical Center currently is staffed by three doctors, with Nabors being the full-time physician, Dr. Alex Synder serving as a part-time physician and pediatrician Dr. Karolen Bowman working on a limited basis.

"They have a great group of doctors and a great staff that they can work on expanding services," Pennington said. "We worry about the day-to-day operations so that they can focus on what the needs of the community are. It benefits both parties and thats what it takes to have a long term realtionship where everyone wins."