Hindman medical clinic reopens after flooding closed it for four months

Damage from severe flooding forced UK HealthCare’s June Buchanan Medical Clinic in Hindman to close for four months. On Monday, the clinic reopened. 

The University of Kentucky said in a news release that UK HealthCare oversees several clinics in areas overwhelmed by last summer’s flooding. The Hindman clinic, which is at 59 Cowtown Road, “took the biggest hit.”  The clinic offers services such as primary care, dental care, a discount pharmacy program and more. The clinic’s x-ray services will be in operation again soon.

Juanita Hughes, a primary care physician with the June Buchanan Clinic, said the clinic has provided health care services for Knott County and beyond since 1974. 

“This facility is so important to Eastern Kentucky, and we are thrilled to be reopening our facility and getting back to normal operations,” Hughes said. 

While the clinic was being restored, teams of UK and UK HealthCare workers in Hazard and Hindman opened mobile dental and medical clinics with assistance from ​​charities and community health workers. Providers were also re-stationed at the UK Center for Excellence in Rural Health (UK CERH) building in the UK North Fork Valley Community Health Center in Hazard while the clinic was closed. 

Maintenance and housekeeping workers from the UK CERH helped with cleaning up the June Buchanan Clinic. 

Director of UK CERH Fran Feltner said that the recent Eastern Kentucky flooding affected many in the region. Access to local quality health care is crucial to disease prevention and managing health outcomes. 

“The reopening of the clinic has been all hands on deck,” Feltner said. “I am very thankful for all the UK CERH housekeeping, maintenance staff, faculty, providers and many others who made the reopening the UK June Buchanan Clinic possible.”

Tammy Stidham praised the staff at the clinic. Stidham is a practice manager for June Buchanan and the community health center. 

“Even though their personal homes were flooded, they still came and helped with clean-up. They were willing to do whatever they needed in order to reopen the clinic for their patients,” Stidham said.