HILLTOWNS — The Hilltowns’ only large-scale health clinic has added a second provider, Nurse Practitioner Savannah Wagoner, allowing it to take new patients after reaching a patient population of 1,700 earlier this year.

The clinic will be able to see an additional 1,000 patients, clinic founder and Nurse Practitioner Jill Martin told The Enterprise this week.

Wagoner is a Hilltown native and Berne-Knox-Westerlo graduate who attended Maria College in Albany for her associate’s and bachelor’s degrees in nursing, Hilltown Healthcare owner Jill Martin told The Enterprise in an email this week. She then earned a master’s degree in nursing from Utica University. 

“Savannah has practiced as a registered nurse in many areas of medicine including family medicine, pediatrics, and women's health, and she is thrilled to be taking on a new role as a nurse practitioner in the field of family medicine,” Martin said.

She added that Wagoner is especially passionate about health education and literacy, and will help “patients so that they can easily participate in medical decision-making to provide a healthy, realistic, and attainable plan of care together.”

Medicare guide

Hilltown Healthcare has also added a Medicare Health Navigator position, filled by Martin’s daughter, Sarah Martin, who had previously been an office manager and medical assistant for the clinic. 

As navigator, Sarah Martin will help Medicare patients figure out “convenient and affordable ways obtain coverage and delivery of prescriptions, gain access to transportation services, facilitate referrals to specialists, obtain free or affordable medical equipment, retrieve medical records and test results, schedule appointments, assist in homecare services, and with any financial needs (including clothing, housing , and local food resources),” Jill Martin said.

This service will be free, she said. 

Like Wagoner, Sarah Martin is also a Hilltown native and Berne-Knox-Westerlo graduate. 

“With a background as a Medical Assistant and as a Medical Office Manager, she has a broad foundation to build upon to effectively promote wellness to our valued aging patients, while giving back to her community,” Martin said. “This much needed service allows time for more focused care, while developing a deeper level of trust and understanding of the individual’s physical, emotional, spiritual, and financial needs.

Hilltown Healthcare opened its doors in December of 2019, after Community Care Physicians closed its Hilltown location, where Martin had been working as a nurse practitioner, leading to the displacement of around 1,900 patients in the rural community. 

Jill Martin continued to run Hilltown Healthcare from the original leased location, on Helderberg Trail next to the Berne-Knox-Westerlo campus. That building has now been sold to the BKW school district.

Almost exactly three years from its opening, the clinic relocated to a new location on Helderberg Trail. 

Martin said in January of this year that the clinic was seeing 1,700 patients and would add 1,300 later in the year.