What began with one doctor’s vision has grown into a lasting legacy of compassion and care.
Written by Katherine Pyles, 2025
In the early 1990s, Huntington’s health care system was a patchwork of providers — two hospitals, independent practices, HIMG and Marshall University’s physician group. They were all doing good work, but they largely operated in silos.
“I kind of look at it like it was a quilt,” said Dr. Kevin Yingling, a founding board member of Doctors Care of Cabell County. “There was a population of patients who did not have health insurance and were not covered by government programs like Medicaid, and they’d fall through the cracks. They had a difficult time getting access to health care.”
Dermatologist Dr. Charles Yarbrough was among the first to notice the need. He began providing free treatment to patients who couldn’t afford care — and quickly realized their problems went beyond dermatology.
“Maybe they had a heart problem or a urinary tract problem, or they were dealing with some other disease process or organ system,” Yingling explained. “Charlie would take care of the dermatologic problem but then he’d have a hard time finding someone to see them for whatever other problem they had.”
So, Yarbrough came up with the idea of creating a network of physicians willing to volunteer their services to this patient population. He started calling his colleagues, urging them to help.
“I don’t remember how he got ahold of me — I just know that he did, and it’s hard to say no to such a worthy cause,” said board member Dr. Eduardo Pino. “How can you say no to helping others who are not as fortunate?”
Yarbrough named the group Doctors Care of Cabell County, a play on words that reflected both practicality and compassion. Almost immediately, doctors, nurses and community members stepped forward to support the effort.
“I think Charlie was pleasantly surprised by the number of physicians who were willing to help,” recalled his wife, Kathleen Yarbrough. “What I remember most is when he went to see the CEOs of the local hospitals — they were very excited about the idea and thought it was a good one. He was a worker bee, always talking to people at the hospitals, trying to get the nuts and bolts in place so that people could be helped. I honestly don’t think he stopped to consider how huge it would grow to be.”
From her perspective, the heart of Doctors Care was always the community itself.
“They weren’t giving people a handout — they were giving them a hand up,” she said. “These were working people; they just couldn’t afford health insurance. That made Charlie feel good, that he could do something to help them. It brought him a lot of joy.”
For years, the program filled a critical gap in access to health care. As national reforms expanded coverage, the organization broadened its mission to serve other vulnerable groups. To ensure that the spirit of Doctors Care would continue, an endowment was established through the Foundation for the Tri-State Community to support the network’s work and, later, its legacy. When the volunteer program itself concluded, the endowment transitioned into a field-of-interest fund, continuing to meet patients’ needs in new ways.
Today, the Doctors Care of Cabell County Fund distributes grants to nonprofits that address health disparities across the region, extending the original mission through sustainable community support.
“The Foundation is committed to carrying forward Charlie’s vision and the mission that he laid out in the beginning,” Yingling said. “They’re the organizational leadership that’s allowed this entity to continue to make a difference.”
This new chapter of Doctors Care is about meeting people where they are, Pino said.
“What we’re doing through the Foundation is actually reaching the people, as opposed to waiting for them to come to the doctors’ offices,” he explained. “We’re distributing the money to organizations that can serve more people than we ever could. It’s more gratifying than ever before.”
The Doctors Care of Cabell County Endowment Fund supports programs addressing behavioral health, substance use disorders, food insecurity and disabilities. Grants have funded initiatives at Recovery Point West Virginia, Ebenezer Medical Outreach, Facing Hunger Foodbank and other community organizations.
Though Doctors Care no longer operates as a volunteer physician network, its legacy of compassion lives on through grants that will serve the community for generations.
“This was started by one man who had a vision and who had the drive and the personality to recruit other like-minded people,” Pino said. “It just shows that there’s no limit to what people can do to help others.”
