Health and Fitness : Early Bird hours: VGH clinic to open at 7 a.m. weekdays beginning May 6

Chelsea Peoples, shown with patient Nikel Dedrick, will begin seeing patients at 7 a.m. on May 6.

Chelsea Peoples, PA, says she enjoyed her work at Virginia Gay Hospital's clinic in Vinton so much as as a PA student that she decided to make Vinton her first career stop.

“I like the town. I like the size,” said Peoples, who has been seeing area patients at the clinic since last August.

Now, Peoples and Director of Clinic Operations Dona Morris have announced a new effort to help make health care more accessible and more convenient for local patients.

Beginning Monday, May 6, the Clinic will open at 7 a.m. on weekdays.

“We are calling it Early Bird hours,” said Morris.

“With the Affordable Health Care Act, there is more of a focus on convenience and health care accessibility,” says Morris, who adds future announcements of more efforts to expand health care opportunities to patients are likely.

Peoples, a certified physician’s assistant, said the Early Bird hours will be particularly helpful to people who need to see a provider before going to work, as well as moms who will be able to take their children to see Peoples if they complain of being sick in the morning. That way, she says, the parents can find out if their children are sick and should stay home, or can go to school, before the school day begins.

“We need to do all we can to try to make access to health care more convenient for our patients,” says Peoples, who grew up in Woodward before attending the U of I. “The Early Bird hours will help us see the patients we need to see.”

Clinic hours are currently 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday, and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday.