Heritage Hospital will host a reception Thursday for 11 physicians who have joined with the Tarboro hospital to provide area patients medical care.

The reception will run from 6-8 p.m. in the cafeteria of the hospital, at 111 Hospital Drive. It is free and open to the public.

Those joining the hospital in providing their patients care include:

• Anesthesiologists Dr. Jeffrey A. Kidd and Dr. Bhupendra Modi

• Cardiologist/Hospitalist Dr. Noel Peterson

• Family practitioners Dr. Yasin Houbi, Dr. Betty Jordan and Dr. Thomas Gennosa

• Pediatrician Dr. Gregory J. Stark

• Hospitalists Dr. Roy Everette and Mahdi Sitouh

• Internal medicine practitioner Dr. Thomas W. Hodgin Jr.

• Ophthamologist Dr. Richard Davis

Gennosa, 43, has 10 years of experience practicing family medicine. He opened a Tarboro office at 107 W. St. John St., an extension of his existing practice in Robersonville which he started in 2003.

"I talked back and forth for a while" about partnering with Heritage Hospital, Gennosa said. "It didn't seem right until I had an office here" before making the commitment, he added.

Now that he has joined with Heritage Hospital to provide care for his patients, Gennosa said that if they are warranted, his patients will receive services like cardiac stress tests at the Tarboro Hospital.

"The majority of operations will happen" at Heritage Hospital when he prescribes them, he added.

Since opening his Tarboro office, Gennosa said his 200 patients have received an "unexpected" benefit from the move. It provided patients easier access to his services who already lived closer to Tarboro, like those within Edgecombe and Pitt counties.