WVU Medicine holds ribbon cutting for new Ravenswood clinic

RAVENSWOOD -- WVU Medicine held a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new local walk-in clinic Wednesday morning in Ravenswood.

WVU Medicine opened a Jackson General Hospital walk-in clinic in Ravenswood in December 2023, but the event on Wednesday was the official ribbon cutting for the facility.

According to Jackson General Hospital President & CEO Stephanie McCoy, originally citizens approached WVU Medicine about opening a primary care facility in Ravenswood. There is great primary care available in Jackson County, so they decided not to add primary care. WVU Medicine identified a need for another walk-in clinic because the schedules of the primary care providers in the county are booked up. Also, the Jackson General Hospital clinics in Ripley at Walmart and Fruth Pharmacy are open only one weekend day each, so a walk-in clinic was needed to provide more after-hours care.

According to McCoy, the clinic is a $60,000 investment in the community.

The clinic was also opened because there is a need to lower the amount of emergency room visits in the community. The clinic gives more opportunities for people to get treatment sooner and not end up having to make an emergency room visit, McCoy said.

During the ribbon cutting ceremony, McCoy introduced the providers at the clinic, nurse practitioners Lindsey Bush and Tabitha Smith.

Bush said that she had worked away from Jackson County, her home, for most of her career.

"I'm really excited to be back in the community in Jackson County," she said.

She said that they have already helped 1,262 patients at the clinic since it opened in December.

"It's kind of nice to be back in the Jackson General family," Smith said.

Ravenswood Mayor Josh Miller also spoke at the ceremony. He said he was extremely excited to be at the ribbon cutting.

"Education, health care, all these pieces are the key to a great community and great county, and we got that here," Miller said.

Miller thanked everyone who worked on getting the clinic open and said that he couldn't be more excited to be a part of the clinic. He has even brought his children to the clinic. He said the clinic is great, you just drive down the street and you are in and out.

Jackson General Hospital board member Lee Corder spoke too. He said that there are health care facilities in Ravenswood and the new walk-in clinic is a nice facility and it is going to be fun to be a part of.

"This is gangbusters to have this in Ravenswood," Corder said.

Jackson County Chamber of Commerce President Cinda Francis spoke at the ceremony and said she was excited to be there to celebrate the opening of the clinic.

"Jackson General has always been a very strong active supporter of the county chamber and an integral part of our whole community, as everybody knows," Francis said. "As business owners and business people we know how important access to quality health care is, not only for our businesses, our employees, the citizens as a whole."

Ravenswood Freewill Baptist Church Pastor Chris Skeen gave an invocation during the ribbon cutting.

The walk-in clinic is not the only new thing happening in Ravenswood for WVU Medicine.

McCoy said WVU Medicine is working on an expansion of Jackson General Hospital that they plan to open in the summer of 2024.

She said In the new hospital wing there will be a new emergency room. The ER will go from four rooms with seven beds to 12 private rooms and two triage bays. The operating room will change from three OR suites that have three prepost bays and three post-anesthesia bays to nine prepost bays, three post-anesthesia bays, two large OR suites and two procedure rooms. On the second floor the inpatient unit will go from 13 semiprivate rooms, some with shared bathrooms, to 18 private rooms with private bathrooms. There will also be an infusion area and a rehab room for skilled nursing stays.

McCoy said they also just hired a surgeon who uses robotics in surgeries and they will be adding the robotics equipment and training teams on it this summer.

"The closer it gets to completion every time I'm over there, I'm just super excited because it's going to be so nice for the community," McCoy said.

To learn more about the Ravenswood walk-in clinic and the services it offers visit https://wvumedicine.org/jackson-general-hospital/walk-in-clinics/.

Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsandsentinel.com