Published: May 10, 2008 08:46 pm         

New River Health Association

Helping others inspiration behind organization

There is an addictive element in the Mountain State for outsiders who wander in and imbibe it — something in the air, the water, the soil, the people, from which a newcomer can seldom draw himself away.

Just such an intoxicant overwhelmed a VISTA volunteer from New York and a Harvard University medical student some 30 years ago in Scarbro. The eventual results were the New River Health Association and more than three decades of life and work in southern West Virginia for Craig Robinson and Dr. Dan Doyle.

As NRHA CEO Dave Sotak tells it, Harvard’s board of directors was approached in Boston by Robinson and a group of United Mine Workers of America coal miners. Their message? “We’re wanting to start this clinic, and we’re looking for a buck,” said Sotak, who teamed up with NRHA in 1992.

Robinson came to West Virginia as part of a “wave” of VISTA volunteers that included Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., in the 1960s. A needs assessment conducted by Robinson and the UMWA in the mid-1970s demonstrated that health care in Fayette County was unavailable to a great number of people.

On July 1, 1978, that partnership became a nonprofit organization known as NRHA. Robinson’s next steps were to acquire funding and seek out physicians.

Enter Doyle, who was working on his medical residency at the time. According to Sotak, Doyle noticed information about the group on a notice in a hallway in faraway Boston.

It aroused his curiosity, so Doyle contacted Robinson. “That started a dialogue that turned into a working relationship that turned into a life-long friendship,” said Sotak. “They are both phenomenal folks.”

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From such humble beginnings as a small warehouse clinic in Scarbro, the organization has now swelled to 160 employees operating in four counties on a $15 million budget, Sotak explained. The association is funded by a combination of federal grants, state monies and contributions from groups like the Benedum Foundation.

NRHA wellness centers have sprung up in six schools — four in Fayette County and two in Nicholas County — and NRHA school health director Teri Harlan is in the process of locating a seventh center in the future Oak Hill Elementary School.

While its administrative office is still located in Scarbro, NRHA serves residents with health clinics in Fayette, Nicholas, Raleigh and Summers counties. Its mission is to provide primary care services and identify health care needs regardless of an individual’s insured status or ability to pay.

The need for NRHA is palpable, Sotak asserted. “We are the ninth-largest employer in Fayette County, which speaks to part of the problem we have,” he noted.

“Fayette County is now a county of small employers. A lady from the chamber of commerce talked about how many employers there are in Fayette County with less than 50 employees. For those employers to provide health coverage becomes cost-prohibitive. That’s sad when you’re the ninth-largest employer with only 160 employees.”

Sotak estimated that, of the nearly 13,000 children utilizing school wellness centers in West Virginia, 4,000 of them are seen by NRHA employees. Among Fayette County’s 47,000 residents, Sotak’s group serves 21,000 patients per year, he calculated. “We are serving 30 percent of our service area,” he added.

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The group has evolved and expanded over the years to now include a black lung clinic, a behavioral health center, a pharmacy, dental care and a free-standing birth center. It was that last feature that lured Harlan to join NRHA in 1998. In fact, it lured her first two children into the world.

“I actually delivered my first two children at the birth center there,” she explained.

“I knew it was very family-oriented and a community health center there to serve the community. I wanted to get involved with it. I was not familiar with school-based health centers, but I developed a passion for those and for expanding that program,” said Harlan, who is now in charge of all six school wellness centers.

Sotak was charmed by the “zest” of NRHA’s founders to develop programs that would be beneficial to people in Fayette County. “There was a lot of excitement about it, and that was very motivating for me,” exclaimed Sotak, whose connections go back to his being served by a NRHA clinic in the early 1980s.

And those founders are still around. Sotak took over from Robinson as CEO only five or six years ago, he stated, and Doyle is director of the NRHA black lung clinic.

Sotak sees his organization shifting time and focus into the area of geriatric care. “We’re moving in that direction now. We have the highest percentage of elderly, behind Pennsylvania and Florida. NRHA has evolved, but it has stuck to its mission. It has grown, but the mission hasn’t changed.”

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Unless or until the status quo changes on health care in America, lamented Sotak, there will always be a need for NRHA.

He remembered a comment made by Doyle at a recent meeting — “In no other developed country would we be having this discussion,” Doyle was heard to declare, of the effort to navigate the incomprehensible labyrinth that is the health insurance industry.

“We’re working with a group (NRHA) that’s interested in getting that care and those services to people despite the system we have here in America, which is pretty sad,” stated Sotak.

“The challenge is to work within the complex systems that we call ‘health care’ in this country to try to deliver care in an equitable way that gets to entire populations. We had a meeting and tried to figure out how to work around and through issues related to money we don’t capture. It’s important to get money, but it’s also important to deliver care.”

Harlan is proud to work with an organization that is innovative, progressive and undeterred by setbacks. “It is run by a community board of directors that’s not afraid to try new things,” she asserted.

“Where they see the need, we try to address that need. Instead of saying, ‘That’s not what we do or focus on,’ we try to address those needs. It’s why we’ve expanded, and it’s really important to mention that now we are addressing the needs of the community and taking care of a person’s entire health,” she continued.

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For Harlan, she is getting paid to do something she loves — helping people. It doesn’t hurt, however, to hear some occasional reminders of why she is in her chosen profession. She admits forgetting at times what an impact NRHA has on area residents until she hears feedback from those who are served by it.

“We have parents call and thank us for working it out to get their children in to see the dentist, or an eye exam, or glasses. We have some pretty amazing staff that work in the school sites who go above and beyond,” said Harlan.

When in need of some inspiration, Sotak hearkens back to the unknown woman who walked by his office one day in the behavioral health center and looked in at him. “She said, ‘Thank God that you guys are here in this county,’” he recollected.

“Then she just walked on. I never knew who she was, but it was very inspiring and touching. It had a very big effect on me. That always stuck with me. For a whole lot of people, life ain’t easy. With health issues, it makes it even more difficult. If you can help them get through those pieces, you’ve done quite a bit. It’s quite rewarding.”

For more information on NRHA, call the business office at 469-2905 or visit them online at www.newriverhealth .org.

— E-mail: mhill@register-herald.com