By Stephen Smoot
The famed American novelist Thomas Wolfe (not the Tom Wolfe who wrote Bonfire of the Vanities, but an unrelated author of the same name) wrote a novel entitled “You Can’t Go Home Again” which was published after his death in 1940.
It should suffice to say that if Sugar Grove native Dr. Brandon Glover read that work, he was not swayed by its title.
“Pendleton County is the best place,” said Glover, who also added “(It’s a) very close-knit, small-town community and it doesn’t get any better than that.”
Glover chose his career path early on, while still a student at Brandywine Elementary School, choosing to emphasize work in family medicine while in medical school. Family medical practitioners, according to West Virginia University Medicine, “care for patients of all ages, including infants, children, adults, and seniors.”
Although he says “I have lived in Morgantown for over 10 years for school and training, . . . I always considered Pendleton County my home.” Glover added that “my wife, Haley, also grew up here and we wanted that same experience for our children.”
Recruiting to rural areas has generally served as a challenge. Amna Nawaz from PBS, during a broadcast feature about a hospital in Jefferson County, stated that “nearly two-thirds of areas with a shortage of primary health care professionals are in rural communities.”
Recent studies, however, seem to indicate that rural health care can serve as a magnet for those who grew up in the countryside, as well as those with a higher dedication to patient well-being.
According to the National Rural Health Association, a rural upbringing serves as a key factor in new doctors desiring to “go home again.” An article they published in May cited a study that concluded that, as in the case of Glover, “physicians from rural backgrounds were almost twice as likely to practice in a small town than their urban counterparts.”
Furthermore, physicians who trained in rural areas “were more than twice as likely to practice in a small town compared to urban counterparts.” A 2014 West Virginia University Institute for Community and Rural Health found “that medical students who scored high on measures of service orientation were more likely to practice in a rural area, regardless of where they grew up.”
In many cases, small towns and rural areas rely on health care from Federally Qualified Health Centers, also known as FQHC. Also called Community Health Centers, these facilities, according to The Primary Health Network, are “community based and patient directed.” They “exist to serve those who have limited access to healthcare, although all are welcome.” These include “low-income individuals, the uninsured, or the underinsured,” but generally offer the same high-quality healthcare as other facilities.
As Glover notes, “FQHCs, like PCC [Pendleton Community Care], bridge the gap for access to health care in underserved areas.” He went on to say that “PCC, with our multiple clinic sites, provides convenient, exceptional health care.”
Another critical element in patient care, regardless of location, lies in providing a welcoming atmosphere. Glover said, “I will be joining a group of already fantastic providers offering another friendly face and comprehensive care.” He shared that PCC will offer “office based vasectomies for male patients who seek a permanent form of birth control.”
Finally, he said of his return to Pendleton County, “I consider it a privilege to be able to come back to my hometown to provide care.”
