In 1980, the primary care physician serving the Mad River Valley, Dr. John Saia, announced he was leaving his practice to teach at the University of Vermont. His announcement meant that the Valley would not have a primary health care provider to serve its approximately 5000 residents. However, the heavy workload and isolated location, combined with the fact that most young doctors had large debts accrued from medical school, hampered Dr. Saia’s sincere efforts to sell the facility. From the time he left through the sale of his practice, Dr. Saia arranged temporary coverage of the facility by hiring doctors from surrounding towns to work alternating shifts.
A group of concerned citizens formed in July of 1980 to discuss options in case Dr. Saia could not find a buyer. When the facility did not sell by December of the same year, the group began making alternative plans. The community realized that in order to attract physicians to the Valley, it was critical to find a way to relieve them of the burden of the heavy debt of starting up a practice. Chosen representatives from each of the four valley towns developed the idea to buy Dr. Saia’s practice and turn it into a community run health center staffed by two doctors. This group, to eventually include 13 citizens from the four towns, formed the original MRVHC Board of Directors. By January of 1981 by-laws were enacted, the appropriate non-profit organization forms were completed and filed with the Secretary of State of Vermont, and the Mad River Valley Health Center, Inc. was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation in January of 1981.
The original mission of the Mad River Valley Health Center was to provide a quality facility to insure the availability of local health care to residents of the Mad River Valley, neighboring towns and visitors. The role of the Board was for fiscal management and the establishment of general policies and procedures to be consistent with the overall attitude and needs of the community. The Directors were not intended to take part in the day to day management of the health center.
In the spirit of a traditional New England barn raising, a fundraising campaign began in March of 1981 and raised more than $150,000 in two months to purchase the existing practice, including the home on Main Street, which housed the doctors’ office. In July 1981, the first patients were served at the new Mad River Valley Health Center with two physicians, one of whom was Dr. Francis Cook.
From its inception in 1981, the Health Center underwent various changes, but remained in the original ranch house. In 1986, in part due to the complications and time commitment of dealing with medical administrative red tape, the Board of the Health Center decided to sell the medical practice to Dr. Francis Cook, one of the Center’s initial staff members, and operate the non-profit MRVHC and the Medical practice as separate entities. In 1996, the Health Center was designated as a Rural Health Clinic. The quality-of-care improvements to meet this government program, further enhanced the service available to Medicaid and Medicare patients. The Mad River Valley Health Center, Inc. remained the owner and operator of the building and leased the space to Dr. Cook from that point on.
The mission of the MRVHC, which was shared by Dr. Cook, was to serve as a primary care family practice providing health care to the Mad River community, neighboring towns, and visitors. During this period, in addition to providing direct care, Dr. Cook oversaw the entire practice, coordinating the care and referring patients when indicated.
During its first 20 years, the practice at the Mad River Valley Health Center served an estimated 70 to 80 percent of the population of the Mad River Valley. The presence of the practice at the Mad River Valley Health Center clearly had a positive influence on the health status of our community.
The original structure housing the MRVHC, while adequate for many years, was never ideal. During the 20 plus years of the MRVHC’s initial existence, the population of the Mad River Valley increased by 48 percent. Dr. Cook’s practice grew accordingly, hiring additional staff and increasing its hours of operation. While the original building and grounds were modified in response to increases in the patient load, the building was never expanded. Two surveys, conducted in 1996 and 1998 to sample consumer opinion, identified a need for internal changes to the building. Dr. Cook and the practice staff also identified a need for additional space.
In response to this need, the Board of the MRVHC, Inc. dedicated itself to constructing a new building on the existing site. In response to this need, the Board of the MRVHC, Inc. dedicated itself to constructing a new building on the existing site. The Mad River Valley Health Center never had a substantial operating surplus and routinely used what surplus it did have over the years to fund health care for indigent patients. In 2003 the Board of Directors embarked upon a major capital campaign to raise the necessary funds required to build a new Mad River Valley Health Center facility. The goal was to raise sufficient funds to begin construction during 2004 in a building appropriately configured to provide the best family practice care available, while maintaining the character of the Historic Waitsfield Village. The new building was designed to house expanded medical office space. It increased the amount of space from 1600 to 3400 square feet on the first floor for the exiting medical practice and was designed to be more accessible to the ambulance; the 3400 square feet on the second floor was designed to accommodate complementary health services. This medically up-to-date building was designed to fit into the streetscape of the historic Waitsfield Village area where it is currently located.
The Capital Campaign initiated by the MRVHC looked to all elements of the communities served by the medical practice to support this important project. Major contributions were sought from individuals able to make significant leadership gifts and large donations were requested from area corporations and businesses. Grants were sought from local and national foundations. All users of the Health Center were asked to contribute whatever they could to the project. This capital campaign was very successful, and the end result was the construction of the current building on Old Colony Road.
Dr. Cook continued to operate his practice in the new facility until his retirement in 2016. Shortly prior to his retirement, Dr. Cook sold his practice to Central Vermont Medical Center but continued to practice as an employee of CVMC. CVMC became the primary tenant of the MRVHC in July of 2016. In addition to the family practice run by CVMC, the MRVHC is home to three other providers: Hannah’s House, Three Moons Wellness, and Dr. Richard Davis. Click here for details about all the Health Center’s providers.
Most recently, during the height of the COVID pandemic, the Mad River Health Center Board of Directors, in coordination with the VT Department of Health, the Waterbury Ambulance Service, and the Waitsfield United Church of Christ, led the effort to establish a testing site in the Mad River Valley to relieve individuals of the need to travel to Berlin or Waterbury for testing. In addition to establishment of the testing site, the MRVHC collaborated with the VT Department of Health to acquire home COVID test kits to be distributed in several sites.
In the fall of 2023 and 2024 the Mad River Valley Health Center worked with the Shaw’s Pharmacy in Waterbury to run a vaccination clinic which was a big success. Many people attended each year’s clinic where COVID, flu (including the quadrivalent for adults over age 64), RSV, Shingles, Prevnar (pneumonia), and Tdap (tetanus) vaccines were offered. These clinics were a success in large part due to the pharmacists and staff at the Waterbury Shaw’s Osco Pharmacy who contributed their time and services by hosting these clinics and providing the vaccinations.
In November 2024 CVMC announced that it would be closing the clinic here and consolidating its practice with the existing primary care practice in Waterbury. The Board of Directors pursued every means possible to convince CVMC to change its decision and/or to find alternative ways to maintain a primary health care clinic in the Valley. Unfortunately, CVMC was unwilling to change its decision and the other possible candidates to take over the practice all ultimately chose not to do so.
Dr. John Wilson, who has been one of the physicians at the CMVC clinic for many years, decided to leave CVMC and to start his own practice here. The clinic that Dr. Wilson will be starting will be based upon the small patient volume model – maximizing on time with patients and focusing on disease prevention. This model gives patients more direct access to the doctor. This model does limit the number of patients that a doctor can see, but it also means that the doctor can spend more time with each patient, often offering same-day or next-day appointments and being more available through phone, email, and even house calls. A retainer fee is paid for this service which generally covers the doctor’s availability and time but is separate from a patient’s insurance.
Both the Board and Dr. Wilson are acutely aware that such a practice may not be the ‘ideal’ solution to the decision by CVMC to close its clinic here. However, having looked at a number of other potential options, this is the only one that Dr. Wilson feels can work financially. The Board agreed to rent space to Dr. Wilson to operate his practice here and will continue to pursue alternative options to find another tenant whose purposes and activities are incidental or related to the provision of health services to use the space that will remain available after CVMC moves out.