|
Phone: (276) 873-6825 Tahir Ahmed, M.D. is a board certified Internal Medicine physician who practices with Merit Medical Group in two locations, Honaker and Richlands. Dr. Ahmed’s colleagues at Merit Medical are Kamran Rasul, M.D. (Internal Medicine, Geriatrics), Raheel Ahmad, M.D. (Internal Medicine), Muhammad Javed, M.D. (Internal Medicine, Cardiology), Waleed Siddiqi, M.D. (Internal Medicine, Geriatrics), and Haya Siddiqi (Internal Medicine, Geriatrics). Two family nurse practitioners – Carolyn Thornsbury and Shelia Tillia – also work with Merit Medical. The group has offices in Honaker, Oakwood, Tazewell, and Lebanon. Dr. Ahmed was born on March 7, 1971 in Bagh, a town in Northeast Pakistan near the border of Kashmir. Bagh remained his home until 1999. In the year 2000, Dr. Ahmed married Seema Ahmed. The family has grown to include two children, Noor (b. 2001) and Talha (b. 2003). Educated in Pakistan, Dr. Ahmed attended medical college in Quetta and Multan, receiving his MBBS degree from Nishtar Medical College in Multan in 1995. Dr. Ahmed was House Surgeon at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad for several months before becoming House Physician at the same institution in 1996. The next year, he went to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad, where he spent two years as a Resident Medical Officer. In 1999, Dr. Ahmed moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he worked as a clinical assistant until July 2000 when he enrolled in the Internal Medicine Residency Program of the Morehouse School of Medicine at Grady Memorial Hospital. Dr. Ahmed completed a three year residency in Internal Medicine at Grady, graduating in June 2003 after being honored as Resident of the Year by the medical school. He has been practicing medicine in Honaker and Richlands since August 2003.
About 20% of Dr. Ahmed’s patients are infants, children, or adolescents, 50% are adults between the ages of 20 and 60, and 30% are adults over the age of 60. He estimates that 50% of his patients are covered by Medicaid or Medicare, 20% have private insurance, and 30% have no insurance coverage. He sees around 20 patients a day in the office and 4-5 patients a day in the hospital. Dr. Ahmed enjoys working with geriatric patients and relishes the teaching of patients, students, and residents. His practice is very busy and the residents who train with him see patients who present with a very broad spectrum of diseases and conditions. Dr. Ahmed takes care of entire families aged one to one hundred, and he offers opportunities for residents to learn minor surgical procedures.
Specialties represented on the hospital staff include Anesthesiology, Cardiiology, Cytopathology, Dermatology, Emergency Medicine, Family Practice, Gastroenterology, General Surgery, Geriatrics, Gynecology, Hematology/Oncology, Internal Medicine, Nephrology, Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ophthalmology, Oral Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery, Otolaryngology, Pediatrics, Podiatric Surgery, Radiation Oncology, Radiology, Urology, and Vascular Surgery. Residents who train with Dr. Ahmed can choose from several local hostelries, including Michelle Rogic’s efficiency apartments, the Bedrock Inn, Cuz’s Cabins Bed & Breakfast, the Timberline Lodge, and the Super 8 Motel. GMEC will try to locate a furnished house for residents but short-term housing can be hard to find in rural communities and we cannot make any guarantees. Dr. Ahmed practices in two Virginia counties – Richlands is in Tazewell County and Honaker is in Russell County. The Richlands-Cedar Bluff-Raven-Claypool Hill-Pounding Mill area is a thriving commercial place with a population of about 15,000. The boundaries of these small towns bump into one another to form a larger, unofficial whole. The population of Richlands itself is 4,144. Tazewell County has a population of 44,598. Once based on coal mining and forestry, the regional economy has grown diverse in recent years. Major elements of the Tazewell County economy are educational, health and social services (22%), retail and wholesale trade (20%), manufacturing (12%), construction (7%), and agriculture, mining, and forestry (7%). Russell County used to have the largest cattle ranches east of the Mississippi, and high mountain pastures rising above the basin of the Clinch River are a legacy of those bygone days. Pastures surrounding the Town of Lebanon fade into forests in the northern and western parts of the county, which stretch across the coal-bearing hills of the Cumberland Plateau. The population of Russell County is about 28,500. Honaker is a small town with about 950 residents on Highway 80 in the northeastern part of Russell County. It is about 20 minutes from U.S. Highway 19, 50 minutes from Interstate 81 (Abingdon), and 70 minutes from Interstate 77 (Bluefield). Pasturelands and forested hills cloak the landscape around Honaker – it is a beautiful place.
Four lanes of U.S. Highway 460 join with four lanes of U.S. Highway 19 just south of Richlands in Claypool Hill. There are two malls and several shopping centers in the area, many local and franchised restaurants, several cinema screens, and any number of discount stores, groceries, and specialty boutiques. The surrounding countryside is lovely, with forested ridges rising above quiet coves and high rolling hills of green pasture. Area attractions include the Crab Orchard Museum & Pioneer Park, Burke’s Garden, Pocahontas Exhibition Coal Mine, Cedar Bluff Mill, and Breaks Interstate Park. For more information, see profiles of Tazewell and Russell Counties at www.uvawise.edu/gmec.
|
Tahir Ahmed, M.D.
Dr. Ahmed works in Honaker two full days and three half days each week. He spends the other three half days in Richlands, devoting a total of 40 hours a week to outpatient care. He uses three exam rooms at each site. Lab samples are picked up by a Labcorp courier and processed by the reference lab. The Honaker clinic has x-ray equipment. Patients who need additional x-rays or other diagnostic studies go to Clinch Valley Medical Center in Richlands. Dr. Ahmed does a number of minor surgical procedures, including intra-articular injections, suture of small lacerations, abscess and incision drainage, and trigger point injections.
Dr. Ahmed admits patients to Clinch Valley Medical Center. This 200 bed acute care hospital is 15 minutes from Honaker and just across the street from the Merit Medical office in Richlands. The hospital offers: allergy care, angiography, cancer care (diagnostic, therapeutic, support, rehab), cardiac catheterization, cardiac intensive care, case management, diabetes teaching, diagnostic imaging, electrocardiography, emergency care, hemodialysis (outpatient), intensive care, laboratory, lithotripsy, maternity care, nursery, nursing teaching program, nutrition, occupational therapy, pastoral care, pharmacy, radiation therapy, rehabilitation, respiratory therapy, skilled nursing services, sleep studies, social services, speech therapy, surgery (inpatient, outpatient, orthopedic, cystology, laparoscopy, endoscopy), transitional care, unit, and ultrasound.
The most important sectors of the economy in Russell County are: educational, health and social services (20.0%), manufacturing (17.8%), tobacco agriculture, forestry, coal mining, and construction (17.8%), and retail or wholesale trade (13.7%).