While his corporate position brought a move to Columbus, Ohio, in 2017, T.J. Obrokta Jr. still considers West Virginia his home. Not only does he have a son and two grandchildren in Huntington, the Encova Insurance President makes regular business trips to town.
His conversation is sprinkled with references to “our hospitals” and “our community” too. Encova Insurance, formerly Brickstreet Insurance, has already provided $750,000 to support the Hoops Family Children’s Hospital and its pediatric outpatient therapy center. So, in keeping with its philanthropy spirit and desire to strengthen our community, it’s not surprising the Encova Foundation of West Virginia has already awarded St. Mary’s Medical Center a $500,000 grant to help equip a second
Hybrid Operating Room.
Opened six years ago, the first Hybrid OR offers a single surgical workspace that combines imaging equipment with a multifunctional surgical table. That allows doctors to diagnose and treat patients in a single location, which reduces risks and delays, improves safety, and lowers costs.
This specialized facility has enabled the Surgical Services Department to perform thousands of minimally invasive surgeries. It has also provided advanced imaging and endovascular repair of traumatic injuries and degenerative vascular
disease and decreased the length of hospital stays.
No date has been set for opening the second Hybrid OR, since more funding to furnish it is still being sought. Whenever that happens, the Encova CEO sees it as another step in the right direction for healthcare in southern West Virginia.
“If you look at West Virginia as a state we love so dearly, the metrics and statistics will prove there are certainly opportunities to improve our health and wellbeing,” says Obrokta, an attorney with a Huntington law firm before he helped launch Encova’s predecessor, Brickstreet Insurance. “This just seemed a natural way to assist. The people in southern West Virginia deserve quality healthcare as much as anyone else in the nation.”
Obviously, the more skill sets that St. Mary’s Medical Center and Cabell Huntington Hospital can develop with such advanced facilities the better physicians they can recruit, the insurance
executive says.
“It will continue to differentiate the Huntington area in terms of regional medical capabilities,” Obrokta says. “It will ultimately attract more and more physicians to the area.
“The residents of southern West Virginia won’t have to go to Cincinnati or Columbus. They’ll have the services right here. It makes me immensely proud that we can do something that enhances quality of life for people in this part of the state.
