ECU chooses SCC as site for new dental school clinic
–Herald photo by Nick Breedlove
East Carolina University has chosen Southwestern Community College as a site for one of three dental clinics planned by ECU’s dental school in North Carolina.
ECU announced Oct. 19 that one of its 10 planned dental clinics would be located in Jackson County but did not specify a location.
Dr. Greg Chadwick, associate dean of the dental school, chose the site with assistance from Raleigh based consulting firm Cansler-Fuquay Solutions.
In an e-mail to the Herald, Chadwick confirmed SCC as the dental school clinic site in Jackson County and said Dr. James Hupp, dean of the dental school, was in the area Feb. 8 to finalize arrangements.
Jackson County commissioners met Feb. 4 in closed session to discuss the location of the proposed clinic.
The first mention of the dental clinic came during the June 15 commissioners’ meeting, when county Manager Ken Westmoreland said there was a possibility for ECU would open a dental clinic here.
The new dental school at ECU will begin accepting applications for students this July, and expects its program to begin in August, 2011.
SCC’s dental clinic operated by ECU’s dental school will be staffed by faculty, advanced education in general dentistry residents, a hygienist and, once they exist, fourth-year students.
Chadwick said he hopes the dental clinic will offer a full range of services for the public and at the same time allow students to get experience. More than anything, he hopes the dental school to be a collaboration with the community, he said.
“It’s not just for Jackson County, it will serve the entire region,” Chadwick said.
The ECU clinic at SCC plans to accept insurance, including Medicaid, and work on a sliding scale of fees, he said.
SCC President Cecil Groves said officials are looking at the site of the current maintenance building along N.C. 116 and are considering relocating the maintenance building to the area of the parking lot across the road from Bradford Hall and Founders Hall, Groves said.
The cost of some of the preparation work and building the new maintenance building will likely be included in the county’s 2010-11 budget, Groves said.
ECU is looking for an area with ease of access, located central to the region they plan to serve, and SCC fits that goal, Groves said.
ECU chose Jackson County because it is central to the region they plan to serve, he said.
To complement ECU’s planned dental clinic, SCC will develop a dental assisting program, Groves said. That new program will differ from the dental hygenist program offered at Asheville Buncombe Community College and will likely be a one-year program, Groves said. “I’m extremely impressed with (ECU’s) willingness to be collaborative,” Groves said. “They’re very easy to work with, very understanding and truly committed to rural health.”
Thus far SCC is the only community college chosen to house one of ECU’s planned dental clinics, Groves said.
Dr. Hupp met with SCC’s executive council, its board and the county manager Feb. 8 to discuss the site. That discussion included making sure that the funds would be in place in the county’s 2010-11 budget, according to Groves.
No funds are allocated in SCC’s budget because the college didn’t know it would be chosen, Groves said.
“SCC’s contribution will be the land, and hopefully it will cost a little bit of money, but given the return of the service to the community, it will be a great investment,” Groves said.
“It will be a very attractive facility on campus,” Groves said, adding that the face of the campus would be changing soon. Current expansion plans also call for the addition of the Early College building and a new 30,000-40,000-square-foot academic conference center located by N.C. Department of Transportation’s building.
The planned ECU dental clinic will only marginally add to the traffic on N.C. 116, Groves said. Also, it will be centrally located to the other government service centers, such as the new senior center and the Department of Social Services, Groves said.
Westmoreland told the Herald that the new dental clinic “will go hand-in-hand with the programs that SCC provides and hopefully allow for development of a dental assistant program.”
The service the planned dental clinic will provide is much needed in Jackson County and the region as a whole and will be a nice expansion of the current service offered by the Health Department, Westmoreland said.
Jackson County currently has a free dental clinic in Cashiers to serve those who don’t have the resources to pay for dental care.
In 2003, the Blue Ridge Mountains Health Project held a free dental clinic that saw some 300 patients over three days, leading them to establish a permanent dental clinic there.
Bill Jacobs, board member for the free dental clinic, said he sees the potential for collaboration between it and the planned ECU dental clinic at SCC.
“There’s a tremendous need for free or low-cost dental care in Western North Carolina, and we’re delighted to see the school in Jackson County,” Jacobs said.
The Cashiers clinic does a lot of sophisticated, difficult dentistry, that dentistry students likely wouldn’t perform, said Jacobs, who added they would be happy to discuss with the dental school experiences and opportunities to cooperate on training and service.
In addition to the SCC site, ECU plans dental clinics in Ahoskie and Elizabeth City.
