Community Wellness brings jobs to new headquarters in Danville, Gov. Beshear attends ribbon cutting
Published 4:12 pm Thursday, November 3, 2022
Governor Andy Beshear and Community Wellness CEO Edward Fields (middle) cut the ribbon to Community Wellness’s new headquarters in Danville. Also in the photo are Judge Executive Howard Hunt (second from right) and Danville Mayor Mike Perros (right). photo by Fiona Morgan
Governor Andy Beshear speaks at the Community Wellness ribbon cutting. Photo by Fiona Morgan
Community Wellness is located in the west side of the large Essity warehouse complex. photo by Fiona Morgan
Community Wellness has large rooms for training and offices for support staff. photo by Fiona Morgan
Hospital to home patient outlook
CEO Edward Fields
The front lobby
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Telehealth company Community Wellness has opened a 24/7 Patient Monitoring and Training Facility in Danville that will bring 450 new jobs to the area.
Governor Andy Beshear spoke at the ribbon cutting ceremony on Oct. 26. The facility is located in a 22,000-square foot part of the large Essity warehouse in west Danville.
The facility will serve patients in Kentucky and throughout the country by providing fully integrated remote patient monitoring and behavioral health services for patients with chronic conditions, high-risk pregnancies and opiate use disorder.
The company will onboard more than 450 employees, using the facility as its national training headquarters for telehealth nurses. CEO Edward Fields said about 100 of those jobs will be based in the Danville area.
Those jobs in the building space will include enrollment specialists, office support, human resources, clinical health coaches, patient support staff, ambassadors, enrollment and other clinical operations. The other 350 jobs will be remote, mainly telehealth nurses, and some doctors, IT positions, and ambassadors.
“Our new home in Kentucky represents a crucial investment in the healthcare infrastructure required to support over 500,000 patients, and we’re thrilled to be in partnership with the Commonwealth, and Team Kentucky of the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority, and the Kentucky Hospital Association for their vision and support,” Fields said.
One part of the building will have office staff, and another part will have a 48-seat training room for telehealth nurses. Fields said over the next 12 to 18 months, they will bring about 1,000 telehealth nurses through the training facility.
Beshear said he is thrilled to have such a large company bring its headquarters to the state, and that it will benefit the Danville area.
“One of the reasons I ran for governor is that I believe that healthcare is a basic human right, and I believe that we all have a role to play to do everything possible to make sure everyone has access, no matter where they live, no matter how old or young they are, no matter how much money they have or don’t have,” Beshear said. “That’s why I make good on a promise to relaunch Connect, our state-based health insurance marketplace.”
The administration recently announced that Kentucky is expanding the medicaid program to cover dental, vision, and hearing health, so more people can get access and get back into the workforce.
“It’s pretty simple; if we want you to hold a job, you’ve got to see well enough to drive to that job,” Beshear said.
Fields said Beshear’s announcement to expand medicaid will allow companies like Community Wellness to reach more people in need.
“It was that announcement that medicaid would begin serving medicaid patients with technologies and services like ours as soon as this year, that our business was transformed, and we began to accelerate our own business and growth,” Fields said.
“I’m just thrilled to say that by June of 2023, almost two years ahead of schedule, we expect almost all 450 of those jobs to be filled,” Fields said.
Beshear said this type of company is crucial to healthcare’s future, as the Covid-19 pandemic caused a shift towards telehealth services.
“Think about people we can reach in parts of Kentucky where they would otherwise have to drive an hour or two hours, ensuring they’re not going to miss that next visit, and providing them the same healthcare opportunities they would receive in other parts of the state,” Beshear said.
Fields said one of their goals in creating Community Wellness was to reach the rural population.
“For patients that are struggling with chronic conditions, for women who have high-risk pregnancies, for Kentuckians with opiate use disorder challenges, there’s help available, and there’s help that doesn’t require you to go in your car and go to the hospital or the doctor’s office,” Fields said. “There’s help that respects your privacy and is available to you at all hours of the day.”
More information about treatment and jobs is available at communitywellness.com. Training for telehealth workers starts this month.
