A nurse practitioner owned and operated company that provides health care services that promote prevention of illness, management of chronic physical and mental illness and care of the sick and injured. In the summer of 2016 it became clear that I needed to take a path other than the one I had been on as far as my career. I thought I was going to be there until I retired. I was 58 then and hoped to retire early at 62 (my financial advisor says no). As I began looking at other opportunities, I found several that intrigued me. I had been working on a project over the previous year or so to provide genetic testing services in Wilmington, NC. They do not have a genetic counselor for oncology there, much like Lynchburg only Wilmington is a larger city. After many months of approaching multiple individuals in the area, one NP with her own practice, Deborah Adams-Wingate, was interested in helping me get started. Now was the time to begin. I knew it would take time to build a practice there. I also became interested in pharmacogenomics. Through a personal experience with testing to show if I had some genetic defects carried by my sister, and looking for a cost-effective way to test my mom for the same defects, I found Imperium. I watched a webinar and became very excited about bringing this test to others. There were so many practices where this could be useful in heading off adverse drug reactions, delayed treatment response and treatment failures. So, I signed some documents and began to explore how I could bring this testing to my colleagues. I have met with some providers, done some presentations. We have sent a few tests. However, this was a contract position and although has growth potential, not a job with benefits like I needed. But there is more. I started thinking about how I would market these activities. How would I bill for my services? I needed my own business. So, I contacted Legal Zoom to help me launch this yet unnamed venture. I filled in the name of my company as “unknown” and I started to ponder what to call it. I used the thesaurus to help me begin my search. I searched the word insight as that was what I hoped to bring to my clients; insight into their own genetic makeup and how to use that information to have a healthier life. On the list of words related to insight was sapient. I was not familiar with the word so I looked at the definition. Having wisdom and being related to homo sapiens. How fitting? And so, it was there that I found the name. Interestingly, there were already companies with that name but none specific to health care. I submitted it and in December 2016 was granted use of the name Sapient Health Services, PLLC. I visited my mom during my job search and she had read an article where a man named Curry Martin, a Bedford County Supervisor and business owner, said that he had a clinic that he wanted opened by a physician or NP (I was already impressed before reading any further as he obviously knew the skill set of NP’s and that one could open their own business). The article was published on a Friday and I was reading it on Sunday. I called him Monday morning. I needed an office and he wanted a clinic in that building. He said that 2 others had called before me but he liked me and would let me know what the others decided. He gave them a deadline and when they did not call, he sent me a text saying it was mine if I wanted it, wow. He was offering free rent for 6 months plus utilities and maintenance to help get it started. The building is only 14 minutes from my home through rural Campbell and Bedford counties. I had been in oncology and genetics for 11 years right out of NP school. I had little confidence in my skills in primary and urgent care. I needed backup and a collaborating physician. I reached out to the local NP group to let them know that WE had an opportunity to open a NP owned and operated clinic, the first in Central Virginia. I was interested, and still am, in this being a place for students, NP, DNP, PA, DO, etc. Only a few of my colleagues have the vision that I did of what this could be and I realized if this was to be, it was up to me. And there is more. During my last 90 days with Centra, I took a temporary position with Piedmont Community Health Plan doing Medicare exams and was also asked to help staff the Lynchburg City Employee health clinic. On my first day there I met a nurse by the name of Tammy Nunn. It was obvious that she was the person that kept that ship afloat. The full-time provider for the city clinic had been out on medical leave and a different provider came each day to help fill the void and she kept everything running smoothly. I don’t even recall now how it came up but on my first day there I found out that she used to work at the little clinic that had been offered to me (God is so good). Over the next 2 months she was a great sounding board for me and a wealth of information about the community and the way things had been when she worked there. Prior to working in the employee clinic, I had sent my CV to North Carolina for an oncology position. I had a phone interview and was asked to come spend the day with one of the physicians and his NP partner. I admired their way of working together to care for the patients on their schedule that day. I let them know that I had some other pursuits that I was working on and was told this would not be a problem (not for them anyway, quite a balancing act for me if all this came together). I got a call to come work with them and within minutes wrote my resignation letter to Centra. My position there began January 30, 2017. I talked to different family members about all that had happened. They were concerned about how I would manage it all. I went back to Mr. Martin after several weeks. I told him that I had taken the job in North Carolina and as of that time, I did not have a collaborating physician to work with me on the clinic. I told him that if he had someone else in line that he should let them have it as I would not be the one working there full-time. He told me to keep looking and let him know if anything changed. But I couldn’t let it go. The NP in Wilmington identified a physician that was willing to work with me there. I made a trip there in December 2016 and the paperwork was completed. The plan was to go there 1-2 days per month to provide genetic counseling services for their community. Then I called Craig Petry, MD in Lynchburg. Craig has a family practice not associated with Centra, important due to the non-compete language in my contract with them, and he also has his own aesthetics practice that is growing. We had previously served together in the Ruth Brooks Free Clinic. He immediately agreed to meet to discuss my interest in opening the clinic. We did that and I arranged for him to come for a tour of the building. We signed a collaborative practice agreement that day. Martin did not have anyone else interested and we are now preparing the building to open as Huddleston Health and Wellness. I now face the task of staffing the office, completing the necessary paperwork, stocking it with supplies and getting it up and running. My position in North Carolina requires my full-time attention for now so I will have limited involvement in the day to day clinic operations. I will continue my genetics practice as time permits and will continue to promote the adoption of pharmacogenomic testing by my colleagues. This all happened in just a few months. It was not my plan but I see God’s hand in so many things that have come together and I feel blessed. I pray that He will give me strength to complete the work He has begun and to help me finish well. Thank you to my family, friends and colleagues for understanding that I have been called to this work and ask you to trust that He will take care of me as I care for those he sends my way.
