ST. GEORGE – Officials at St. George Clinic announced they have hired three new staff members.

Dr. Elaine Moore has returned to Tucker County and is accepting new patients. The Clinic has added a new position with Amy Cummings as a therapist, and recently, welcomed David Lambert as their new compliance officer and human resources director. Chief Operations Officer Julie Strawderman said the Clinic is excited about the new additions.

“Dr. Moore had worked in Tucker County and moved to St. Albans on the outskirts of Huntington and Charleston,” Strawderman said. “She wanted to come back. We are happy to have her back and the patients are excited to have her back in the area.”

Strawderman said Moore is currently only working a few days per week right now.

“But people have been calling requesting appointments to see Dr. Moore,” Strawderman said. “She seems to be a perfect fit. She has been back for approximately two weeks. Moore is a general practice physician.”

Amy Cummings is a therapist who had her own private practice. She used to work for Tucker County Community Corrections and still see patients from Tucker County Community Corrections.

“We were referring our patients and when the Federal Government offered money for expanded services, we were first in line,” said Clinic CEO Paul Wamsley Jr. “First we hired a patient care coordinator to help with Humana and Medicare patients because they needed counseling by someone close to their primary care physician.”

Wamsley said next the clinic added dental services, which were much needed.
“We took the initiative to hire a licensed professional counselor,” Wamsley said. “Amy was seeing some of our patients on a referral basis and we worked out an arrangement with her. Now we can do referral or in house for mental health. Just in one month, she has already had 60 patients. That is a lot and we haven’t really brought out the program yet.”

David Lambert served as the treasurer of Tucker County Schools for many years. On Monday, he started at the St. George Clinic as the new compliance officer/human resources manager.

“We have grown,” Strawderman said. “We used to have 13 to 15 employees including full and part time. We are now up to 30 employees. He is doing a little bit of everything.

“At the time we advertised for a compliance officer, we had 17 grants we are working on. We need to monitor and make sure every dime is spent within the categories is a full time job. I needed someone to do that,” Wamsley said. “We had several very qualified candidates – David had a background in auditing and he knows non-profit accounting. He has written grants for the school and fits the description of what we were looking for. Healthcare is changing weekly and if you don’t monitor the system you never know what the updates are. He will help us keep up with this. The position is federally funded – that is how we can afford it.”

Strawderman said as of the end of February, St. George Medical Clinic has had 1,100 more encounters than this time last year.

“How we determine the needs of the community are through needs assessment,” Wamsley said. “Dental services were first on the list, and we added dental. Second was mental health and we have addressed that. Third on the list was x-ray and we are getting ready to add that.”

“How we determine the needs of the community are through needs assessment,” Wamsley said. “Dental services were first on the list, and we added dental. Second was mental health and we have addressed that. Third on the list was x-ray and we are getting ready to add that.”

Wamsley said they are in negotiations with Direct Care in Parsons to potentially lease part of that facility which already has x-ray equipment.

“If that doesn’t happen, we have talked with a contractor about putting an addition on the St. George Clinic here for us,” Wamsley said. “It is going to happen for us, I just do not know what location yet. I would prefer up at Direct Care because the equipment is already there. We are also looking to putting a Nurse Practitioner at that location to pick up some of the evening hours when there is no care in the county.”

The St. George Clinic is accepting appointments as well as walk-ins. Clinic hours are Monday and Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Fridays from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.

Appointments and information is available by calling the St. George Medical Clinic at 304-478-3339. The office is located at 8591 Holly Meadows Road in St. George.