Photo Provided The members of Cornerstone Healthcare are, from left, Dr. David Cramer, Dr. Gabriella Olsen, Dr. Stephan Hanna, Dr. Joan Allman and Dr. William Cartwright.

PARKERSBURG — After nearly a quarter century as an independent doctors practice, Cornerstone Healthcare became part of the WVU Camden Clark Medical Center in November.

Dr. Stephen Hanna, president of Cornerstone and a family practice doctor, said the decision was made in 2017 and became official Nov. 1, with the transition going fairly smoothly.

The office is now called Camden Clark Physicians Corporation Cornerstone Primary Care.

“We started out as four doctors approximately 25 years ago and then went up to 12 doctors total. Through retirement and attrition, we are now down to five doctors,” Hanna said.

Along with himself, the other doctors operating Cornerstone are Dr. David Cramer, Dr. Gabriella Olsen, Dr. Joan Allman and Dr. William Cartwright. A total of 30 people make up Cornstone’s staff. The office provides primary care from newborn care up through geriatrics.

Photo by Wayne Towner Cornerstone Healthcare, located at 1907 Ann St. in Parkersburg, is now part of WVU Medicine Camden Clark Medical Center.

The doctors who founded Cornerstone were originally located in the St. Joseph’s Physicians Building and then moved to its own site across 19th Street from the hospital at 1907 Ann St. about 10 years ago.

“Doctors practices have found it more and more difficult to remain independent for a number of reasons,” he said, citing overregulation by the federal government and increased record-keeping responsibilities.

“There’s a lot more requirements to running a medical practice, not to mention just running your own small business,” he said. “As we lost doctors and as the requirements for medical documentation became more stringent, we found that it would be a good idea to join and partner with someone else.”

Cornerstone reviewed several options and felt that CCMC would be a good fit for it, especially with the connections to WVU Hospitals.

“Most of the doctors here have faculty associations with West Virginia University Hospital or clinical assistant professors. We teach and have medical students with us so we like the fact that that’s a good combination,” Hanna said.

With an increased emphasis in medical care regarding information and data collection, Hanna said it also helps Cornerstone provide more efficient care to its patients by being tied into the larger electronic medical record system. It also provides easier access to medicines and vaccines and makes patient referrals easier.

“That will help the patients see their charts and get more information better,” he said.

“There’s much better continuity of care for patients,” Hanna said.

“We are very excited to have Cornerstone Medical Group join the WVU Medicine Camden Clark team,” said Charles Morgan, WVU Medicine Camden Clark physician practice administrator.

“As we strive to provide the best health care for the Mid-Ohio Valley we are delighted that groups such as Cornerstone are joining us in that effort. Cornerstone has been providing excellent care for their patients for many years and the physicians in that practice are well respected in our area. We look forward to working with them and continuing to meet the health care needs of this community which we serve,” Morgan said.