The doctor is in.
Beginning March 31st, there will be a new doctor practicing in Russellville to service the healthcare needs of the community. Dr. Amy Traylor is joining Russellville Hospital as a family practitioner at the end of next month and will be available at the hospital three days a week on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.
“Having a family practice position in the community is very important. There are tons of people and patients that need help,” Russellville Hospital CEO Chris Ware said. “Bringing (Traylor) on and her being here with her knowledge, the way she cares for patients, that’s very exciting for us here at the hospital.
“She’s a local girl…and she already has a pretty good following. We’ve been looking for a family practice position since I’ve been here, and everything aligned where we were able to work it out to get her here. I’m very excited about Dr. Traylor coming here. Her reputation precedes her, and I think she’ll fit right in,” Ware added.
Traylor, who has been practicing in Haleyville since 2021 and will continue to do so once a week on Fridays after she joins Russellville Hospital.
Traylor went to medical school at the University of South Alabama before joining the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler for one year. After that, Traylor, who is also a fluent Spanish speaker, spent two years at a critical access hospital in Pittsburg, Texas, practicing residency and family medicine before moving to Haleyville.
Traylor, who said she’s been peripherally involved with Russellville Hospital since coming back to Alabama, met with the staff and her soon-to-be coworkers, before sitting down with the Franklin Free Press. She said she’s eager to be joining the team and is enthusiastic about the growth the hospital is experiencing at the moment.
“(The staff) are awesome. It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Traylor said. “I’m excited to be part of a system again. I enjoy the collaboration that you can more easily get when you’re in closer proximity to other providers and professionals.
“I’ve been excited about the ways they’re growing here at the hospital. The sleep lab has been revamped…and radiology seems like they’re always able to get something new and get patients in. Having the opportunities to connect and get patients the services they need, I think that’s what’s really exciting about being here. And I’m excited to do a little bit of inpatient work, as well, since I’ve been out of that for a couple of years. It’s going to be fun,” Traylor added.
Fun—and always a learning experience. That aspect of the job and the ability to help people are the main reasons Traylor said she got into the field of medicine.
“I’ve always been a little bit of a nerd, right? So I enjoy that there’s always something new to learn and discover,” she said. “Interacting with people every day and trying to help them improve their health and take charge of it, it’s exciting for me. I enjoy family medicine because from room to room it’s always different—different problem, different patient experience.
“I’ve had a lot of opportunities with different experiences from doing some inpatient work to doing some ER in the past and just several other ways to practice medicine—urgent care and other types of things. So, I enjoy the variety and always learning,” Traylor added.
The job, of course, also comes with its challenges. One of the biggest challenges—challenges both Traylor and Ware are committed to confronting head on—stems from complications with insurance.
“This is becoming more public knowledge now, but insurance requirements a lot of times are challenging to help people get what they need in a timely fashion,” Traylor said. “We try and the staff is always great about helping try to get everybody what they need as quickly as possible.”
Ware, who has 17 years experience in rural healthcare, concurred and added that he and Traylor share the same mindset about treating patients.
“The big thing is some of the insurances, they don’t want to pay, you know? There’s always discussion about changing the way insurances do, but at the end of the day, whether they have insurance or not, Dr. Traylor is gonna take care of patients.
“That’s our responsibility as a hospital, to take care of those patients regardless of their insurance. It’s very important to have somebody with that same mindset that I do, and I think we share that mindset: as long as the patient’s getting taken care of, we’ll worry about the rest later,” Ware said.
“At the end of the day my main goal—why anybody should be in rural healthcare—you’re not in it to make a ton of money, you’re in it to take care of your community and your patients. I think we share that same goal,” he added.
