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With its most well-known facility being in Mt. Sterling, it can be easy to overlook Sterling Health Care and its services to the Clark County community. 

However, the organization continues to have a positive influence. 

Sterling Health Care, which formerly operated SHC Women’s Care – Winchester at 455 Bullion Boulevard, recently added primary care services, thus changing its name to Sterling Health Care – Winchester while remaining at the same location. 

“We’re in a period of phenomenal growth,” said Jeff Pinkerton, Marketing and Communications Manager for Sterling Health Care. “We are now currently approaching the 300 employee mark, and have just added services to our Winchester clinic.” 

As a federally qualified health care center, or FQHC, Sterling Health Care has long offered primary care, behavioral health, and women’s health services in Montgomery County. 

Tina Bryant, chief executive officer of Sterling Health Care, talked about how it has since seen expansion, specifically in Clark County. 

“We started with the women’s care service line at first back in 2020”, she stated, noting that staff growth has seen much development since. “With that, what they were finding is that…some of their patients didn’t have primary care.” 

It hasn’t taken long for the organization to take action. 

“As of October 1, we added some primary care so that the patients have more access to different things.” 

The same services are being offered in neighboring Paris, or Bourbon County. 

Bryant adds that – at Sterling Health Care – clients can be reassured regarding insurance coverage. 

“We’re a safety net provider in all of the counties that we’re in. We take all insurances, but if someone doesn’t have insurance, then we have a sliding scale fee that helps them,” she said. “We don’t turn people away.” 

Mindee Hudson, current Chief Operating Officer of Sterling Health Care, noted that such organizational growth is an encouraging sign. 

“When I started, there were less than 50 employees here. With all of our growth, we’ve been able to go into these communities and really be a safety net provider and help these patients,” she said. “Everything has been received with positive comments from our patients, whether it’s through our patient satisfaction surveys or just our interactions.” 

Dr. Richard Hall, Chief Medical Officer, also responded. 

“I was here in the beginning when there were three other providers and three nurses and a few other staff, so it’s changed a lot in the last twelve years,” he said. “We’ve been lucky and been able to find other providers that wanted to come in and help fill…needs.” 

Pinkerton acknowledged that many others have helped provide support. 

“We certainly don’t want to forget about the support that we get from our elected officials, the ones that understand what it is that we are doing,” he said. “They have been very supportive in all facets.” 

At its Mount Sterling location, in addition to aforementioned services, Sterling Health Care provides children’s health, an on-site and drive-thru pharmacy, urgent treatment care, community health workers, vision care, transportation (through scheduling), translation and interpretation, and x-ray, ultrasound, and laboratory services. 

They hope for continued growth, with hopes to be getting their first mobile health unit in early 2025 and more. 

“I think all of the employees tend to find a lot of value….[They] really feel like they’re impacting patients,” Hudson added. “We have a lot of people..[who are] here not because they have to [be], but because they want to. I think that speaks volumes to the work that’s being done.”