Calhoun is named medical director for AMH's emergency department

Dr. Richard Calhoun said he came to Alleghany Memorial Hospital in search of a pleasant working environment. Having met his goal, he had no qualms about accepting the position of medical director of the emergency department May 24.

In his capacity as director, he serves as a go-between between Emergency Medical Care and the hospital medical staff. EMCare is the company contracted to provide emergency room physicians to Alleghany Memorial Hospital.

"All the physicians have a long-term record of working in emergency rooms and have credentials for this such as advanced cardiac life support, pediatric advanced care, trauma, life support. We all have training beyond general practice."

A native of Ashe County, Calhoun grew up in a rural farm family, received his undergraduate degree from Appalachian and attended medical school at the University of North Carolina.

Following graduation from UNC, Calhoun did a three-year residency at Kanawha Valley Family Practice Center in Charleston, W.Va. He stayed on an extra year, at which time he served as an associate professor in the family practice department.

"I was recruited back to Ashe County in 1986 where I opened a practice," said Calhoun. "I was in private practice until 2003. Because of the malpractice crisis and inability to find affordable malpractice insurance, I changed and started doing emergency room work, which I've always done, but I just made it my sole career at that point." In February 2003, Calhoun joined the staff of Alleghany Memorial Hospital in a part-time capacity in the emergency department. That July, he went to full-time.

"I like the rural areas, the mountain areas, it's home. I feel very comfortable here," Calhoun said.

"The people are very nice and likable. It's just a nice facility to work in. Amazing staff, state-of-the art equipment. For a hospital this size, it's outstanding in what it has to offer. The medical staff is really easy to work with, very concerned about their patients, provide very excellent care, the nursing staff is very well trained, it's just a very pleasant working environment."

Calhoun said he works hard to treat each patient as an individual. "My style of practice is to treat each person individually. I see each person as unique and try to direct myself towards their uniqueness and that makes every patient interesting and rewarding in some aspects." Calhoun assures the community that they can find quality care at Alleghany Memorial.

"I am very much enjoying the facility and community here. People can be very confident they will receive outstanding care here. When referrals to larger facilities are needed, we can arrange that. There are a lot of things we can do right here for the community and they need to have confidence we will do that for them...and we can."

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