VALDOSTA – Nurse practitioner Ebony Scruggs is determined to carry on the mission of Partners in Health Management and its founder nurse practitioner Janie McGhin.

Scruggs came to work with McGhin at the health care clinic as a contract health care provider about a year and a half ago, according to a company statement. In early December, McGhin contracted COVID-19. After a lengthy stay in the ICU at South Georgia Medical Center, McGhin passed away Jan. 15.

Scruggs kept the clinic open, providing health care services for the past seven months. Now she is taking over ownership of Partners in Health Care Management, company representatives said.

The two nurse practitioners met more than 10 years ago. Scruggs was serving as administrator for a local hospice agency and met McGhin and her husband when she enrolled his mother in hospice care. 

McGhin’s mother-in-law passed away in early 2011 and the two women did not see each other again until about two years ago when they met at a nursing conference.

“I heard a voice behind me, and I asked before turning around to see, ‘Is that Janie McGhin?’ and we were reunited from there, almost like we never missed a beat,” Scruggs said. “God used her (McGhin’s) voice for me to hear Him and follow Him here at PHM. 

“The loss of Janie is very painful but I know that God brought me here to fulfill the vision she had for this place. While working together, she would tell me that she wanted to start spending more time with her family and I needed to get ready to take over this place. Again, the voice of God speaking through her. She was an angel here on earth and now an angel above. This is what led me to come to PHM, the voice of an angel used by God.”

McGhin opened PHM in 2016, specializing in diabetes management and primary care. It was the final stage of a long and distinguished career in the health care field.

McGhin immigrated to the United States from Mexico at the age of 6, speaking no English. Education was not easy when only English was allowed in school. She dropped out of school in the ninth grade and went to work as a nurse’s aide in a tuberculosis hospital. She went to night school and was licensed as a vocational nurse at age 17.

She met Robin McGhin while he was serving in the U.S. Army and training at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas. They married in 1972 and moved to Valdosta in 1974. 

McGhin worked in the operating room at South Georgia Medical Center and commuted to Abraham Baldwin College where she received her associate degree in nursing in 1978. She went on to receive bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from Valdosta State University.

She worked at various area hospitals and clinics until 1988, when she decided to enter the health care education field.

McGhin taught nursing at ABAC and health care science at Valdosta and Lowndes high schools before retiring in 2011.

After retirement, McGhin worked as a nurse practitioner for a local physician and a migrant health care clinic. She saw such a preponderance of diabetes, she decided to study and become certified as a diabetes educator and open her clinic.

“I plan to continue the vision of providing specialized diabetes management in the primary care setting and have started the certification process,” Scruggs said. “Mental health, obesity and hypertension management will also be areas of concentration, for individuals across the life span.”

Scruggs is not only a certified family nurse practitioner but also holds a doctorate of nursing practice. She has more than 18 years of experience in a number of different areas of health care. In addition to primary care, Scruggs has worked in mental health, intensive care, weight loss management and hospice care.

Being Mexican American and speaking Spanish, McGhin had a lot of Hispanic patients. Scruggs plans to continue to serve this population with the help of her office manager/nursing assistant, Elizabeth Diaz. Diaz, who speaks fluent Spanish, was McGhin’s student at Lowndes High School and joined her when the clinic opened.

“There has been a gap in health care delivery to our Hispanic populations for various reasons. Janie provided a safe haven for care delivery to many of our Hispanic or Spanish-speaking individuals. We plan to maintain if not supersede this level of care to such a vulnerable population. I say ‘supersede’ because Janie was always looking for opportunities of growth. Elizabeth is the link and strong chain of support that makes this possible,” Scruggs said.

McGhin and PHM have been recognized on the local, state and national levels. PMH won the 2017 Southwest Georgia Bank business plan competition. In 2018, McGhin was named Outstanding Georgia Nurse Practitioner by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and presented Carvanhealth’s Population Health Pioneer award for outstanding provider leadership.

Scruggs is optimistic about PHM’s future. 

“I see great things in the future of PHM. PHM is a gift from God for His people,” she said. “I see continued growth for the organization, staff and every patient. I see growth in and with the community. “

“I am grateful to Ebony and Elizabeth for keeping the clinic going since Janie’s passing,” Robin McGhin said. “And I am delighted Ebony is taking over Partners in Health Management. I know that is what Janie would have wanted. She loved this clinic and would be devastated to see it close.”

Partners in Health Management is located at 202 W. Gordon St., and is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The clinic accepts Medicare, Medicaid and most insurance. The phone number is (229) 474-4101.