West Virginia Executive Winter 2019 | Page 28

[ community ] Young Guns “We need to make it part of our responsibility as doctors . . . to show up at the government hearings, write letters, call our elected officials and be the person who says, ‘No more.’” Dr. Coy Flowers Dr. Coy Flowers, a member of the Young Guns Class of 2013, is as much a fighter as he is a leader. Since his induction into the Young Guns honors program, he has used his leadership and tenacity to fight for change, both medically and socially. A partner at Greenbrier Phy- sicians, Inc., he has served the West Virginia State Medical Association in the roles of vice president, president-elect and now president. For the past three years, he has also served as the vice chair of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology-West Virginia Section, and in 2014, he worked with Fairness West Virginia to achieve the legalization of same-sex marriages. Flowers is a proud advocate for better health in rural West Virginia. “Being an advocate is more than just putting your name on a petition,” he says. “We need to make it part of our responsibility as doctors not only for our practices but also 26 WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE for our communities and for our state to show up at the government hearings, write letters, call our elected officials and be the person who says, ‘No more.’” The fight for quality health care for the rural parts of the state is one he faces every day as the medical director of the Drug Free Moms and Babies Project (DFMB) offered at Greenbrier Valley Medical Center (GVMC) and Greenbrier Physicians, Inc. “When the program first began in 2012, more than 20 percent of babies being born at the GVMC nursery had a positive illicit drug test result,” says Flowers. Due to such a staggering number, the program aims to offer support to mothers who are struggling to combat their drug addiction. He was inspired to get involved in this cause when the number of addicted mothers coming into his exam room was constant and had increased over just a few years. “We realized that this was a problem affecting women regardless of age, race or economic status, but we also saw that moms were motivated for change. When you have those two things together, it creates opportunity,” he says. “This gave us the motivation to strike the right chord to truly make positive changes for moms and their babies.” The DFMB program has shown a great success rate of not only having less babies being born addicted to drugs but also keeping mothers clean through multiple pregnancies. Through the program, the rate of newborn babies testing positive for drugs at delivery has dropped from 20 percent to 5 percent. Flowers and his team are also keeping track of mothers who are filtering back into the program two years after they have delivered. In 2011, 22 percent of mothers tested pos- itive after their first pregnancy, and that rate has dropped to 13 percent. “Not only are we having moms getting through the program and having less babies being less addicted, but we are also seeing moms who are continuing to hold on to their sobriety,” he says. Looking toward the future, he is opti- mistic because the DFMB program con- tinues to expand across the state. What originally started out as four programs in Southern West Virginia has now grown to 18 statewide. “My goal is to have access to more programs that give moms a skill and get them back out in the workforce,” he says. “Let’s get her productive and busy for her to stand on her own two feet again.” Not only is he committed to the health and well-being of mothers and babies in the Greenbrier Valley, but Flowers believes it is his calling to push for the underdog that is rural West Virginia. “As a physician, I am on the front lines of health care, and sometimes that means seeing the bad side. But I have pledged to continue to fight for the increased access to maternity care and health care in the rural part of our state,” he says. “I believe that if more doctors and first responders made their voices heard, we would be a whole lot better off in the Mountain State.”  MAGGIE MATSKO BOB BROWN