Every March 30 people all over the nation honor doctors for their contributions and dedication to society. These amazing, courageous healthcare professionals who play a vital role in our overall well-being, deserve to be recognized.

Doctors’ Day was first observed on March 30, 1933, in Winder, Georgia thanks to Dr. Charles B. Almond’s wife, Eudora Brown Almond. Seeing her husband’s commitment and sacrifice to his patients, she rallied the community to mail greeting cards and place flowers on the graves of deceased doctors. March 30 was specifically chosen because it marks the anniversary of the first administration of ether anesthesia by Dr. Crawford W. Long in 1842. In 1958, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution recognizing Doctors’ Day, and on February 21, 1991, President George H. W. Bush designated March 30 as National Doctor’s Day. The red carnation became the symbol for the holiday, signifying the qualities of love, sacrifice, charity, bravery, and courage.
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Taking advantage of the opportunity to thank the 3 doctors they currently employ, Ritchie Regional Health Center presented gifts and patient appreciation notes to Saad Butt, MD, Marilyn Horacek, DO, and Swathi Talla, MD. RRHC would also like to express their gratitude to doctors everywhere and to those who made this year’s National Doctors’ Day, extra special. 

Ritchie Regional’s Harrisville Campus hosted Bonnie’s Bus - a 45-foot, state-of-the-art mobile mammography vehicle - in their parking lot March 17 - March 18, 2022. The bus provides breast cancer screening throughout West Virginia, especially in rural parts of the state with limited or no access to screening mammography. Bonnie’s Bus is an invaluable program that RRHC proudly supports.

The bus offers mammograms to individuals who fall within screening guidelines in a comfortable, convenient environment. Screening is provided for women, men, transgender, and gender-diverse people with private insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, or those who qualify for the West Virginia Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Program. Uninsured patients living in West Virginia who are age 40 and older can receive a screening mammogram on the bus through the generosity of grant funding and donations.

Bonnie’s Bus was created in honor of Bonnie Wells Wilson, who died of breast in 1992 because she lived a rural area of West Virginia and didn’t have access to screening mammography. Bonnie’s daughter and son-in-law, Jo and Ben Statler, established Bonnie’s Bus in 2009 with a generous donation to help prevent other families from losing a loved one to breast cancer.

Since 2009, Bonnie’s Bus has:

• Provided more than 25,000 screening mammograms
• Detected more than 130 cases of breast cancer
• Traveled more than 199,000 miles
• Completed more than 1,500 screening days
• Funded at least 1,800 mammograms through grant funding and donations

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For questions or more information about Bonnie’s Bus, please call the Bonnie’s Bus office at 304-293-2370 or 1-877-287-2272.

We are pleased to have Jennifer Tallman, APRN, join our team as our newest medical provider. Jennifer brings 20 years of nursing experience to our practice. Most recently she worked as a travel nurse practitioner in New Mexico at the Holloman Airforce Base as part of the Operation Allies Welcome Mission providing urgent, routine, & emergent care to Afghan Allies.

Jennifer is board certified through the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. In 2002, she graduated from West Virginia University of Parkersburg with an Associate of Nursing degree. She completed her Bachelors of Nursing at Middle Tennessee State University. She obtained her Master of Science Degree in Nursing at Tennessee State University, graduating with honors in 2016. After graduation, Jennifer started her practice in Tennessee before moving back home to West Virginia.
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She will primarily be at Ritchie Regional’s Jefferson School-Based Health Center in Parkersburg and will be providing acute and chronic care services to patients of all ages.