Grace Community Health dedicates new women’s healthcare center

Grace Community Health officials joined with local and regional dignitaries Thursday, including Congressman Hal Rogers, to cut the ribbon on the new women’s healthcare center in Corbin.

The 19,000 square-foot facility is located in the Forest Hills Shopping Center on Cumberland Falls Hwy.

Michael Stanley, CEO of Grace Community Health, said the facility is more than double the size of the current facility on the Baptist Health Corbin campus.

The new facility features 10 OBGYN’s, with 26 exam rooms, three ultrasounds with 3D and 4D capability, and two fetal nonstress test units.

According to the American Pregnancy Association, the nonstress test is used to check on the health of the baby by measuring the baby’s heart rate and movement, and ensure it is receiving sufficient oxygen.

“In partnership with Baptist Health Corbin, Grace Health OBGYN’s will deliver over 1,000 babies in the next 12 months,” Stanley said.

Stanley said when the facility was designed; the goal was to focus on providing high quality medical care for the whole person.

“It is a patient centered design that supports the goals of the patients and their families,” Stanley said.

In addition to serving patients on a walk-in basis, the facility has been equipment with telemedicine equipment, which allows health care providers to offer car to patients remotely.

Grace secured a grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture in January. The company will commit a matching portion, to reach the $701,000 needed for the project.

The company will work with schools, nursing homes and its clinics to determine where Internet bandwidth is sufficient for the service to work effectively.

In addition to Grace Health Clinics in Corbin, Gray, Manchester, Pineville and Hyden, eight schools in Clay County, along with the Owsley County Health Care Center, Laurel Creek Health Care, Continue Care Hospital, Hillcrest Nursing Home, Christian Health Center, Corbin Nursing Home and The Heritage nursing home, will receive the necessary equipment.

Rogers, who has continually worked to provide resources in the battle against prescription drug abuse in an area known as, “the pain killer capital of the world,” said he is glad to see that the new facility will focus on helping to treat expectant mothers who are battling substance abuse.

“We are certainly at ground zero here in southern and eastern Kentucky,” Rogers said of the battle against drug abuse.

“One of the saddest parts of the problem is that women who are addicted and pregnant have babies who will be born addicted. It is the most painful thing I think I have ever seen,” Rogers said.

“I applaud Mike Stanley and (Baptist Health Corbin President) Anthony Powers and the entire team for your courage of conviction to help solve this very complex and deadly problem,” Rogers said.

With the opening of the new facility Grace Health officials said the next project on the horizon is the renovations to the former Kmart building on U.S. 25E, which will permit the company to combine multiple facilities now located on Bishop Street, Falls Hwy. and in Gray.

Officials said the building is currently being gutted with plans to begin the build-out phase in early 2019. The goal is to have the facility open in 2021.

As to the proposed medical campus on 10 acres of property the company purchased on the Corbin bypass, officials said, with the opportunity presented with the Kmart building, that project is now seen as a contingency when further expansion is necessary.

“We outgrew so many of our facilities in such short order,” Stanley said. “You have to continue looking ahead.”