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Tyler Zeigler

JONESBORO — Arkansas is often called the best-kept secret in American healthcare, and Clopton Clinic administrator Tyler Zeigler.

"It's one of those secrets that have been kept, whether it was supposed to be secret or not," he said of the college town in the northeast corner of the state. "When we recruit doctors, they don't know the medical community exists the way it does up here."

It isn't just healthcare though. Jonesboro itself is booming, with a shiny new mall and banks and buildings going up on every corner. "We're not as fast growing as the northwest (Arkansas) section," Zeigler said. "But we're … resistant to the economic changes as much as any college town is and we're fortunate in that respect."

Jonesboro now has close to 60,000 people; the county population hovers around 90,000. And that doesn't include the growing bedroom communities that ring the city.

Arkansas State University's main campus is also in town, with 12,000 students. The college town is now bursting at the seams. Healthcare has kept pace, as well. "The growth in the area has certainly necessitated the growth in the medical community," Zeigler said.

Jonesboro now has three hospitals and a mental health facility affiliated with St. Bernards, the largest provider in town with 375 beds. The town has a total of 551 hospital beds between all four facilities. Healthcare is also one of the largest employers, representing nearly 20 percent of the workforce directly or indirectly, according to data from the United States Census Bureau.



Advanced Technology

Clopton Clinic is much like the rest of Jonesboro, shiny and new. While the clinic has been established for decades, the new state-of-the-art facility opened in 2003.

"We've had electronic medical records for 10 years, actually 11 in December," Ziegler said. "You won't find many places in Arkansas, (or) many places in the United States, that can make that claim. So one of the things we like to talk about is how progressive we are. If it hadn't been for physicians' foresight, we wouldn't have been able to (do what we've done). You got to have their buy-in. Without that, it just won't work."

Zeigler credits clinic founder Dr. Owen Clopton.

"He was able to see the future," Zeigler said. "It was his vision, but I think we've tried to be progressive rather than reactionary."

The clinic purchased tablet PCs that doctors use, with a bonus "connectivity at home," Zeigler added.

Web-based medicine is also in Jonesboro.

"Our patients can get on their computers and schedule appointments," he said. "They can make requests through the Internet. They can e-mail their doctors. We don't have the participation (from the patients) yet, but it is getting there."

Running a clinic is, in some ways, not much different than any other business: Identify what you do and excel at it.

"Our core business is internal medicine," Zeigler said. The clinic employs 26 providers, doctors and advanced practice nurses and 125 other related personnel, with the main facility in Jonesboro and a satellite clinic in nearby Harrisburg.

Zeigler would like to hire more doctors.

"We have three GIs, soon to be four," he said. "We have two pulmonologists, and we want that to be three by '08. We have to keep growing just to keep up with the community."



Brand-new Foundation

It isn't just a brand-new building; clinic leaders also have taken steps to develop its community outreach.

"We're just getting started," Zeigler said of the Clopton Clinic Foundation that opened this year. "We work with Cardiology Associates and their foundation closely. So we do some joint things with them. We also sponsor some health fairs, that sort of thing."

That isn't all.

"We also have a nursing scholarship," said foundation president Dametra Hodges. "We're working to develop some big, regular events. We also try to do some (educational programs) that relate to internal medicine, things like diabetes and hepatitis C."

For 2007, conferences are scheduled for diabetes and women's health. Other events include a golf tournament and the Red Dress Gala.



ie.
November 2006

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