Geogy Thomas (PEMBA, ’15) and his wife, Jessie, moved to the small community of Jellico in Campbell County, Tennessee, 24 years ago. The couple had accepted positions at the town’s Dayspring Health and expected their stay to be temporary. The Thomases, however, fell in love with the community and decided to stay.
While the couple loved their community, they were distressed by the lack of comprehensive regional medical resources and two factors aggravating the dearth of healthcare options: crushing poverty and addiction. Campbell County is a “persistent poverty county,” in which the poverty rate has been consistently above 20 percent since 1990, according to the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Drug addiction figures are harder to find, but in a 2018 article, the Guardian reported that in the county, opioid prescriptions were five times above the national average.
Thomas became determined to face these problems and help his community.
Service Beyond Healthcare
Thomas realized that addressing his community’s healthcare issues required more than his skills as an MD. In 2015, he entered the Physician Executive MBA (PEMBA) program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Haslam College of Business to augment his business capabilities. PEMBA helped him perceive healthcare delivery in a fresh way.
“PEMBA helped me look at healthcare through a different lens,” Thomas explains. “It was a lens that exposed inefficiencies, and focused on strategy and finance, helping me to identify problem areas in the system. It was no longer about simply providing healthcare but rather to deliver it efficiently and with excellence.”
Using Business Skills to Increase Services, Overcome Obstacles
Thomas was medical director at Dayspring when he entered the PEMBA program. His business and leadership skills eventually earned him the roles of CEO and CMO. As he assumed these positions within the organization, Thomas led initiatives to add new healthcare services.
“After receiving my MBA, our goal was to be the ‘Provider of Choice’ for our patients, and the ‘Employer of Choice’ for our community,” Thomas recalls. “We added services including dental, behavioral health, substance use and pediatrics. Still yet, our community continued to struggle.”
Then a new hardship struck: Jellico Hospital shut its doors in 2021. It was a heavy blow to the community, but, drawing on his training at Haslam, Thomas worked with his talented and dedicated Dayspring team to realize a concept he had long visualized.
“My dream had always been to offer a one-stop healthcare experience,” Thomas says. “With the hospital closing and so many of our patients forced to drive long distances for essential health services, it became imperative for us to find a solution. Around that time, an old Walmart space became available in Williamsburg, Kentucky [13 miles from Jellico]. We immediately started strategizing how we could make this space a comprehensive medical/dental home for our community.”
Realizing a Dream of One-Stop Healthcare
To make a former supermarket the one-stop healthcare facility he envisioned, Thomas was guided by a triple aim: the final product had to be beautiful, had to be efficient for patients and staff and had to make financial sense. The goal was to meet the challenges of delivering quality healthcare in rural America. Thomas and his team successfully negotiated the purchase of the property and fulfillment of the dream began.
Now, Dayspring Regional Health Center, a 55,000 square-foot comprehensive medical center, is a reality. With this addition, Dayspring has more than quadrupled its original healthcare delivery footprint of 10,000 square feet.
With an official ribbon cutting on October 30, the new center has designated spaces for family medicine, pediatrics, women’s health, behavioral health and dental. To bolster the “one-stop healthcare” concept, the center has a robust diagnostic center, lab, and pharmacy. Additionally, the facility also houses physical therapy, chiropractic services, medical massage, and a concierge tele-specialties service.
In discussing his hopes for the new facility, Thomas reveals that after Jellico Hospital closed, Dayspring patients were traveling long distances to receive basic care like OB deliveries and diagnostic services. To make matters worse, wait times to see specialists such as rheumatology and neurology were as long as nine months.
“My vision for our center is that it would be a true medical home for our patients, where they know that they are loved and that they’re going to get the best care possible,” he says. “I am hoping this improves access, allowing patients to get the care they need, when they need it the most, by a team they can trust.
PEMBA’s ‘Remote Fingerprint’ on a Community
Having secured the comprehensive medical facility, he had envisioned for so long, Thomas recently stepped down as CEO of Dayspring, while remaining as CMO. He is quick to credit his training at Haslam for the advances he has overseen at Dayspring.
“The transformation at Dayspring and the communities we serve would not have happened had it not been for the investment at UT,” he says. “PEMBA has left an indelible fingerprint on healthcare in Williamsburg, Kentucky. Prior to getting my MBA, I had my medical bag, which was great clinically. The MBA gave me a different tool bag that helps us address, and hopefully fix, some of the healthcare disparities in Appalachia.”
While he credits Haslam with equipping him to lead the effort to bring more healthcare services to his community, Thomas wants to highlight the community he calls home.
“This is not my legacy story,” Thomas says. “It’s a story of a precious people that deserve better. I serve alongside an amazing cadre of providers and staff who are just as committed to providing the best care for our patients.”
To that point, Thomas has one request of the PEMBA program: “Continue doing the great work of investing in the next generation of leaders. But please, inspire those leaders to use their talents in serving underserved communities like ours. For me, that’s where the magic happened!”
Main photo, L-R: Amy Rector, wife of Dayspring CEO, Ceo Larry Rector, Geogy Thomas, Jessie Thomas, wife of Geogy, Roddy Harrison, mayor of Williamsburg
CONTACT:
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Scott McNutt, business writer/publicist, rmcnutt4@utk.edu
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