During a 10 a.m. joint news conference with the Scott County Economic Development Authority, HMG announced Duffield, Va., as the location of a $5.5 million, two-phase plan that will greatly improve medical care, services, and technology to a medically-underserved region. The announcement by HMG Founder Jerry L. Miller, MD, also included details of the plan that will bring a significant influx of technology-focused jobs to Duffield.
“The very reason I returned to this area 30 years ago, after medical school, was the fact that Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee were grossly underserved,” began Dr. Miller, a Virginian. “And, I wanted to do something about. I’ve committed my entire life to ensure that this region have not merely adequate medical services – but the best—the best doctors, the best nurses, the best specialists, the best technology and the best by way of electronic health information.”
Phase I of the plan will include the renovation and expansion of the Wellmont/Penn-Virginia building to a 26,500 sq. ft. facility that will accommodate: an increase of four doctors, bringing the total to six; the addition of a state-of-the-art outpatient diagnostic center with CT, mammography, ultrasound, and bone densitometry; three consultative offices where specialists such as ob/gyn, orthopedics, gastroenterology will be able to provide local care to patients; and a physical therapy/rehab center.
HMG has a long history of serving the Duffield community, dating back to 1981 when family physician J. Bryston Winegar, MD, began providing care to the residents of Scott County.
“For more than 26 years, HMG family physician Dr. Winegar has served the very deserving patients of Duffield, Va. With a desire of honoring his faithful service, we are pleased to announce the new facility will be renamed the J. Bryston Winegar Medical Center,” announced Dr. Miller.
Phase II of the plan includes the renovation of separate building on the new J. Bryston Winegar Medical Center campus that will create a 4,000 sq. ft., state-of-the-art facility where data services can be consolidated, stored and serviced by a team of information technology professionals—creating an influx of 40-plus technology-focused jobs.
The new facility will be named the OnePartner ATAC. OnePartner is the name of a new management services organization HMG is launching that will provide the regional healthcare industry with affordable access to modern electronic health information technology. HMG has become known throughout the nation as a pioneer in the comprehensive utilization of electronic health records.
The acronym ATAC, stands for Advanced Technology and Application Center.
According to Dr. Miller, the facility will accommodate the data needs of not only HMG’s 212,000 patients but countless other organizations in the Tri-Cities and surrounding regions. ATAC will provide services that fill the needs of large healthcare organizations by providing off-campus disaster recovery and business continuance for their existing systems and it will give independent providers a state-of-the-art facility to house their EMR systems and patient data.
“This will be a data center of excellence—a secure, high-availability repository for electronic medical records and data storage,” said Dr. Miller. “The potential scope of this data center is absolutely tremendous.”
OnePartner is currently negotiating with several groups for the OnePartner ATAC to become their “center of excellence” for data management. According to Dr. Miller, a current opportunity exists with COSEHC—The Consortium for Southeastern Hypertension Control—representing more than 16 million patients.
Renovation for phase I of the plan will begin within the next 30 days with the J.Bryston Winegar Medical Center slated to be complete in approximately 12 months. Simultaneous work will also begin on the OnePartner ATAC.