Health care back in Rockdale

Rockdale’s two-month stretch without any health facilities is ending.

Dr. Jeremiah Havins, a cardiologist who has been seeing patients in a Thorndale clinic, told The Reporter on Tuesday he had signed a lease for part of the clinic building at 602 North Main earlier in the day.

“We plan to open the middle of next week,” he said.

The facility had closed on Dec. 4, the day Little River Healthcare shut down its facilities in Rockdale and elsewhere.

NEW NAME—Dr. Havins said its new name will be Rockdale Medical Center and the clinic will feature primary care and some specialty care.

He said primary care will be offered for patients 12 and older.

“Nurse-Practitioner Terry Buchanan, who used to practice in Rockdale, will return,” he said.

He said, much like before Dec. 4, 2018, patients will be able to see a physician and get prescriptions refilled.

Rockdale Medical Clinic will occupy one-half the former Little River Clinic building. “It’s the ‘newer’ part, about 2,000 square feet,” he said.

The other half remains available for lease, hopefully to specialists who might to return to Rockdale or begin new practices, he said.

CARDIOLOGY—Dr. Havins will offer a number of services under the umbrella of his cardiology practice including nuclear medicine, echo cardiology, vascular, ultrasound and pulmonary function.

“The Country Meadows facility in Thorndale opened right after all the Rockdale facilities closed,” Dr. Havins said. “We wanted to come back to Rockdale and provide medical care. That’s a very significant area to be without services.”

He extended appreciation to Dr. John M. Weed III for his assistance with the clinic’s lease.

Dr. Weed said negotiations continue with major medical providers concerning the clinic facilities at the now-closed Little River-Rockdale Hospital.

He said the Chapter 7 Bankruptcy (liquidation) is a part of the complex legal tangle involved in those negotiations.

FORMER RMA—The Main Street facility encompasses Rockdale’s first Richards Memorial Hospital created in 1949 from a large frame building at the corner of Main and San Andres. (The Little River-Rockdale Hospital was also once named Richards Memorial Hospital).

Another frame building was acquired later, a stone-fronted reception area was added and the two buildings were joined.

In a 1964 remodeling, a brick clinic was built.

The facility was operated as a clinic under the business name Rockdale Medical Association by Drs. John R. Richards, Philip Young and L. E. Selden.

At the time of the Dec. 4 shutdown Dr. Weed was adamant the situation was not going to be the end of health care in Rockdale and predicted primary care, at least, would return saying: “People will be able to see a doctor and get their prescriptions filled.”

The Reporter’s headline that week read “Christmas ‘Miracle’ on the Way?”

It turned out to be a “Valentine’s Miracle” instead.