Rural communities have less access to healthcare services than their urban counterparts.
Access to care can help prevent disease as it includes early detection, screenings, and treatment. This can help people achieve a higher quality of life and even increase their life expectancy.
There are several proven ways to provide greater access to health care and improve health outcomes. One of those is to provide needed specialist care in rural communities.
The not-for-profit Comanche County health system and its administration has had a long-held goal to increase access to both primary and specialist health care. Studies have shown that rural areas like ours lack sufficient specialist care in several key areas, including obstetrics/ gynecology, cardiology, orthopedic surgery, general surgery, psychiatry, and anesthesiology. Over the years our patients have asked us to consider adding specialists for their care, and to meet those needs we have contracted with new providers. At present, over 10 specialists, many from other parts of the state, provide care to patients, in outpatient and inpatient departments at Comanche County Medical Center.
CCMC hosts credentialed visiting specialists in cardiology, dermatology, general surgery, gynecology, orthopedics, and podiatry who offer regular appointments in the Doctors Medical Center clinic, schedule surgeries in the hospital, or other medical services. Our cardiologists include Harvinder Arora, MD (Abilene), Syed Shah, MD, FACC, FRCP, FHRS (Fort Worth), Ren Zhang, MD (Abilene), and Phillip Myatt, MD (Waco). Dermatologists are Russell Rowe, MD, FAAD, FAAFP, and Nicholas Haygood, PA-C (Waco). General surgeon, John Bawduniak III, MD (Waco), regularly performs a range of procedures in the CCMC Surgery. Yasmin Wilkinson, MD (Brownwood) provides gynecological care. Several orthopedists are on board, including James Deal, MD, (Brownwood), general orthopedics, and Christopher Bates, MD, and Nathen Lesley, MD, hand-toshoulder surgeons (Fort Worth). Podiatrist Bohn Young, DPM, and interventional radiologist Grady Yoder, MD, (Abilene) are also visiting specialists at CCMC. Cissy Ward, LCSW, provides mental health counseling, and Helen Ong, MD, provides pediatric care to young patients in both Doctors Medical Center and Dublin Family Medicine. As we grow, we will look to expand our team of specialists to meet identified needs in the area.
Comanche County and our health care system are well-served by our primary care providers and specialists.
Our hospital departments, such as diagnostic imaging, radiology, laboratory, and outpatient surgery provide diagnostic and other clinical services requested by our providers.
Residents and our current patients who need specialist care can receive it much closer to home.
—Joe Locke is the President of the Comanche County Consolidated Hospital District Board. Barbara Williams, is the Comanche County Medical Center Board president.