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Phone: (276) 523-1600 Lawrence Fleenor is a board-certified family physician in a solo practice called "Foxglove Services." The Foxglove practice is located in an office building on the grounds of Wellmont Lonesome Pine Hospital in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. Born November 29, 1940 in nearby Norton, Dr. Fleenor is a native of the Virginia mountain region. He is married with two adult sons. Fleenor holds a BA degree in Biology awarded in 1962 by the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. He earned an MD degree in 1966 from the University of Virginia and completed a rotating internship in 1967 at Latter-Day Saints Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. From 1967 to 1969, Dr. Fleenor was a commissioned officer in the United States Public Health Service, trained in tuberculosis at the Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta, Georgia. He worked in various aspects of tuberculosis management and control in Illinois until moving to Virginia in 1969. Since 1969, Dr. Fleenor has practiced family medicine in Wise County, Virginia. He founded the Big Stone Gap Clinic and acted as its Medical Director from 1971 to 1986. He is a founder and member of the board of directors for Lonesome Pine Hospital. At one time or another, Dr. Fleenor has been: President of the Dickenson-Wise Medical Group Board of Directors, Chairman of the Respiratory Therapy Department at Lonesome Pine Hospital, Medical Director of Respiratory Therapy for Mountain Empire Community College, a member of the Quality Assurance Board for John Deere, a member of the Wellmont Board of Directors, and Medical Director of Heritage Hall Nursing Home. Dr. Fleenor is a charter member of the American Board of Family Practice and a charter fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He is Assistant Professor of Clinical Family Practice with the Duke University School of Medicine and he is Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine with the University of Virginia. He is also Adjunct Professor of Respiratory Therapy at Mountain Empire Community College. Dr. Fleenor has precepted medical students from Virginia Commonwealth University Medical College of Virginia on an occasional basis. He has precepted physicians' assistant students from Duke University for the past 25 years.
Dr. Fleenor sees about 25 patients a day in an office setting. He estimates that 2% of his patients are infants, 8% are children aged 1-12, 10% are adolescents, 30% are adults, and 50% are older adults. About 5% of his patients are uninsured; 20% are commercially insured, and 75% are insured through Medicaid and/or Medicare.
Special professional interests for Fleenor include pulmonary disease and geriatric medicine. He writes local history and enjoys the outdoors as a hunter and fisherman. Residents who rotate with Dr. Fleenor may choose to stay in area motels Holiday Inn, Ramada Inn, Comfort Inn, Country Hearth, and Super 8. Local citizens may offer room and board in their homes. GMEC can attempt to locate furnished homes or apartments for residents, but we cannot guarantee results because short-term rentals are extremely difficult to secure in rural areas. Wellmont Lonesome Pine Hospital is a 60-bed primary care facility with a standard range of services emergency, inpatient and outpatient care, intensive care, surgery and anesthesia, obstetrics, radiology, imaging, cardiopulmonary rehab, laboratory, nutrition, physical therapy, pharmacy, and home health. Wellmont Health System is a non-profit integrated care delivery system that includes two tertiary hospitals - Bristol Regional Medical Center (377 beds) and Holston Valley Medical Center (540 beds) - along with Lonesome Pine. Specialties represented on the staff at Lonesome Pine include: Emergency Medicine, Family Practice, General Surgery, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Orthopedic Surgery, Otolaryngology, Pathology, Pediatrics, Pulmonary Medicine, Radiology, and Urology. Big Stone Gap is in the western part of Wise County, which has a population of 39,573 (1990). About 4,750 people live in the corporate limits of Big Stone Gap and about 3,000 more people live in neighborhoods just outside the town proper. Big Stone sits in the "gap" of a towering ridge called Stone Mountain. The town stretches across the lower reaches of Powell Valley, a place long celebrated as one of the loveliest pastoral landscapes in the world. The Wise County economy is based on coal mining, retail trade, personal services, transfer payments (retirement pensions, disability income, and welfare benefits), and manufacturing. In 1995, the largest employers in the county were Westmoreland Coal Company, the school board, Buster Brown Apparel, Fournier Furniture, Paramont Coal Corporation, and Powell Mountain Coal Company. Big Stone Gap is accessed by four lanes of U.S. Highway 23
and is served by a number of local and franchised restaurants,
discount stores, groceries, and specialty boutiques. There is
one shopping center, anchored by Food Lion and Wal-Mart stores
and blessed with a good Mexican restaurant. Norton/Wise is 10
minutes away with more shopping centers, a two-screen cinema,
several motels, and more restaurants. There is one large municipal
park in Big Stone Gap, along with several museums and historical
attractions the Southwest Virginia Museum, the John Fox,
Jr. Museum, the Meador Coal Museum, the June Tolliver Playhouse
(outdoor theater), and the June Tolliver House and Craft Shop.
High Knob Lake and Natural Tunnel State Park are about 25 minutes
from downtown Big Stone Gap. |
Lawrence Fleenor, M.D.
Dr. Fleenor's office hours are
9:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m. four days per week (M-W, F), 1:00 p.m.
5:00 p.m. on Thursdays, and 9:00 a.m. 12:00 noon
on Saturdays.
There is a laboratory of moderate complexity on the premises,
operated by Lonesome Pine Hospital. Patients are referred for
x-rays and other services to the hospital, which is situated
a few hundred feet from the Foxglove practice site. The practice
has a computerized management information system that can track
patients and diagnoses seen by residents. There is a computer
and modem with Internet access on the Foxglove premises.
Dr. Fleenor maintains Pediatric,
Medicine, and ICU/CCU privileges at Wellmont Lonesome Pine Hospital,
where he rounds on an average of 5 patients per day. Dr. Fleenor
shares call with other family physicians and internists on staff
at Lonesome Pine. He is on call an average of four times per
month. There are no call expectations for residents. Dr. Fleenor
also admits patients to Heritage Hall, a 180-bed nursing home
about 300 yards from Lonesome Pine Hospital.