Three organizations partner to create new Columbus dental practice

COLUMBUS — Thanks to a new alliance between three area stalwarts, Polk County residents will soon benefit from a much-needed service in the community.

Representatives with St. Luke’s Hospital, Isothermal Community College and Mountain Area Health Education Center attended a ceremonial contract signing event Monday evening at the former home of the Hospice of the Carolina Foothills in Columbus. Leaders with the three organizations formalized an agreement to create a new dental teaching practice inside the facility, which will also house St. Luke’s Physician Network’s Foothills Medical Associates. 

The dental practice — which is expected to open in spring of 2019, following renovations to the former hospice building —  will provide clinical training opportunities for Isothermal’s new dental assistant program, with the first batch of students beginning in fall 2019. In addition, the facility will offer training for MAHEC’s dental residency program and dental students with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The opportunity to teach additional dentists and dental assistants, while also providing quality care to local residents, is one that leaders with MAHEC are particularly excited about, said CEO Jeff Heck. The agency, which supports the education of medical professionals in 16 western North Carolina counties, has recently focused on opening four teaching sites in counties outside the more heavily populated Henderson and Buncombe counties, including the one in Polk County, Heck said.

Rural North Carolina communities, in particular, can heavily benefit from stronger dental care, Heck said. The CEO said that half of the state’s residents rely on hospital’s emergency departments for dental care, largely due to many dentists choosing to practice in larger urban centers. 

“We know that if [doctors] train here [in rural areas], they are going to practice here,” Heck said. “I was talking with Jeff Viar [with Foothills Medical Associates] earlier, and he reminded me that the smartest doctors, the most capable doctors, the most versatile doctors, need to be the ones who practice in rural areas because this really is the challenging work. We just need to make it personally and professionally rewarding to practice in this area of the state. That is our challenge.”

David Pope, the interim CEO of St. Luke’s Hospital, echoed this sentiment, saying that the healthcare industry does not have a service problem, but a distribution problem, with North Carolina’s smaller communities having less access to quality care compared to their larger counterparts.

“We have an obligation to be able to continue to keep these places healthy and strong, and one of the best ways to do that is to do what we’re doing tonight,” Pope said.

“We’re really excited to be part of this partnership, and we look forward to working with y’all in the future.”