Taking quality medical care to the country
Photo: Amy Perkins, FNP-C, stands in front of the Eudora Medical Clinic, a health center for the Eudora area. Perkins will begin seeing patients there later this week. (Bob Bakken/desotocountynews.com)
The attraction of living away from the big city lights for many is the quaint and quiet lifestyle it offers. However in times of needing medical care, finding that medical care brings many challenges. Distance is a factor because often patients have to travel a distance to be seen by a medical professional. Those who live in a rural area oftentimes are older people living on fixed incomes who either don’t have transportation or can’t find a means to get to a primary care doctor.
Amy Perkins, a nurse practitioner who had worked in clinics in Southaven for about 12 years, realized some of those challenges existed when she bought property in the Eudora area about three years ago and moved into a home there about a year ago. Perkins believed it was time to start a clinic in Eudora, and that’s what she has done, opening the Eudora Medical Clinic in the convenience store mini-mall at the corner of state Highway 301 and West Commerce Street.
“The idea for it came up about a year ago,” Perkins said. “The timing just came out right. The new gas station owner was anxious about opening the bays for business here, so they’re very supportive of me setting up a clinic here.”
Perkins also received encouragement from a neighbor to open a clinic in Eudora and on Friday, Feb. 10, Perkins will start seeing patients.
“I had patients I was seeing in Southaven and a lot of them were from out here,” Perkins said. “They were talking about how the price of gas went up, they didn’t have a car or were having trouble getting the transportation to take them to the doctor’s office or going 35 minutes to a doctor’s office to wait and didn’t know how long their appointment was going to be. It gets expensive, especially if you’re on a fixed income.”
The Eudora Medical Clinic becomes the lone health center within “10.8 miles in any direction,” Perkins said, noting that includes Tunica, Horn Lake, Walls, and Hernando. “It may not sound like a lot, but it is for some people.”
Perkins can treat patients who deal with a wide realm of medical issues, including diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, gout, acid reflux, and other items. She has likely already seen it during her time as a nurse practitioner when she worked in Southaven.
“We were the clinics that were too difficult for the nurse practitioner standalone clinics, so that’s what I’ve done for the past dozen years,” Perkins said. “There’s not much that’s too difficult for me.”
If issues need to be seen by a medical doctor, Perkins said her supervising physician is Dr. Diane Ferguson of Horn Lake and her backup is Dr. Michael Zanone of Memphis, who are both just a phone call away.
The hours for the Eudora Medical Clinic are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays, the clinic is open from 8 a.m.-7 p.m., and Friday from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. The clinic is closed for lunch Monday-Thursday from 12 noon-1 p.m. The clinic address 8995 West Commerce Street at state Highway 301 in Eudora.
