princeton – A grand opening hosted Thursday at WVU Medicine Princeton Community Hospital unveiled the facility’s new Sleep and Pulmonary Clinic which will provide people across the region with a centralized location for advanced sleep medicine and pulmonary care.
Located on the hospital’s second floor, the new clinic will offer specialized treatment for sleep disorders including sleep apnea, narcolepsy, sleep paralysis, teeth grinding, sleep disorders that involve movement including restless leg syndrome and periodic limb movements as well as other sleep-related disorders, hospital officials said. The clinic will also provide care for pulmonary conditions including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and other respirator conditions.
“We have a lot of people who have these types of problems whether it’s pulmonary problems or sleep disorders,” said Karen Bowling, PCH president and CEO. “And being able to get those service close to home is extremely important.”
Dr. Tom Takubo, a pulmonologist trained at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine and founding member/partner of Pulmonary Associates in Charleston, is the hospital’s lead physician for the clinic’s service line, Bowling said.
“We’re really excited to be able to come down here and help with what’s going on at Princeton,” Takubo said. “Part of WVU Medicine’s mission and vision is to make sure we extend services and everybody knows West Virginia. It’s a hardworking group of people. There is a lot of pulmonary disease that takes place throughout West Virginia, especially in the southern Appalachia area, so today is a great day.”
The clinic will help diagnose pulmonary ailments sooner and lead to better outcomes, he said. Sleep disorders are often linked to pulmonary disorders.
“Sleep medicine, it’s complicated,” Takubo said. “A lot of people think you just put on one of those crazy machines and sleep with it, but there’s a lot more to it than that.”
People dealing with obstructive sleep apnea are at risk for heart problems such as the heart going out of rhythm, the heart getting weak and stroke.
“So those go up five fold, so it’s not just about sleeping better, feeling better, it’s about making you pick up on these things and you adequately treat it and you stop the progression of all these other disease processes,” Takubo said. “Plus you feel so much better when you get those things treated.”
The clinic will be led by Mary Lewis, FNP-BC, an advanced nurse practitioner with 25 years of clinical care, hospital officials said.
Bowling said the new sleep medicine and pulmonary care clinic is already scheduling patients. Primary care providers have not had such a resource locally, so fewer patients will have to travel out of the area for care.
“I know that this is an important service line and I know this is something that’s going to make a huge difference for health outcomes for people in southern West Virginia,” she said. “And we want people to know it’s not just Mercer County. We want to be available to people in this whole geographic area and provide services.”
“We have a great team here,” Bowling said. “They’re excited and we’re excited to have this great resource here.”
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