Editorial
Thirty years ago in 1995, the board of directors of Rockbridge Free Clinic hired its first employee, Suzanne Sheridan. Incorporated in 1992, RFC had grown so fast and the patient load was so high that the board decided the administrative needs of the clinic required a full time person rather than depending on part time volunteers. As executive director of the RFC, Sheridan worked from her office at 712 N. Main Street in Lexington, where the RFC volunteer providers and staff saw patients during nine service hours per week.
As the number of patients continued to grow and the waiting room was full, the overflow of patients would line up in the parking lot. In the latter 1990’s, Sheridan and the board knew that the clinic needed more space to serve its growing patient population. In the meantime, Sheridan had hired a few more paid employees. By 2000, the RFC was offering 38 service hours per week, but most of the providers continued to be volunteers.
In 2001, Sheridan and the board purchased the property at 25 Northridge Lane, north of Lexington, off of U.S. 11 – the facility’s current location. Sheridan and the staff moved from a 1,000-squarefoot facility to a 9,000-squarefoot one. What an improvement this made! The clinic had so much space that Sheridan and the board rented part of the space to other health care providers. Nevertheless, as time passed, patient population continued to grow and services were expanded to include a dental clinic and behavioral health. Sheridan and the board recognized that, again, the clinic needed more space. Sheridan also led the charge in 2014 for the board to change our name from Rockbridge Free Clinic to Rockbridge Area Health Center, and the facility reopened as a Federally Qualified Health Center.
As a Federally Qualified Health Center, the business model changed; Sheridan spearheaded this change from being a “free clinic” which could only see patients for medical care who had low income, were uninsured, or were underinsured. At RAHC, Sheridan initiated the center’s growth to be able to hire providers and to serve the entire community’s health care needs.
In 2018, Sheridan and the board mounted a financial campaign for the renovation of the facility; in 2019, the new facility was opened with 23,000 square feet of space available to serve patients. Subsequently, Sheridan, as a visionary and with the board’s authority, has opened clinics in Buena Vista, at Rockbridge County High School, and at Maury River Middle School; in addition, through her leadership, RAHC has added two mobile units for medical and dental care for residents in the remote communities in our county.
For the past 30 years, Sheridan has used her visionary gifts to work with RAHC and its board members. During her 30th year as CEO, the RAHC will serve with quality health care more than 10,000 individual patients. Thank you, Suzanne, for your vision, hard work , and commitment to making the RAHC the awardwinning health care organization that it is today.
