WHEN PEOPLE walk into Dawn Selvage’s clinic, they do not feel reduced to a number that pays the bill. Instead, they enter a home, where patients are treated like family. In Selvage’s eyes, that’s what makes her clinic different. The Manchester Care Clinic lies in the heart of the city at 920 McArthur St. The Selvages offer assistance for managing chronic conditions, diagnosing common illnesses, and recommending treatments. Services include DOT physicals, wound care, telehealth, physicals, pediatrics, and testing. Patients can receive annual wellness physicals as well, letting them take advantage of their choices since most insurances allow for one annually.
The work serves as a labor of love for Selvage, who started the clinic simply because she felt no other option existed. Selvage began her nursing career in West Virginia as a licensed practical nurse, spending a number of years working for health corporations in various fields, including progressive care, postpartum, and medical and surgical care.
Along the way, she married her high school sweetheart, Clint — who also followed a career in nursing — and bore three children, leading her to take a school nursing job at Hillsboro Elementary School for a more compatible schedule.
Later in her career, Dawn returned to corporate health work and experienced a life-changing epiphany. From her experience, company culture pressured people to judge employees’ performance according to the number of patients seen. The quality of care seemed to take a backseat.
“I just thought, ‘If I’m giving 100% of my effort to every clinic I’ve ever worked in, I can do a better job,’” Dawn said. “And I don’t have to see 60 patients, because 60 patients makes me feel like I go home doing a terrible job because you can’t do all of what you would love to do for those patients.”
Her dreams bloomed upon finding a small grey house on Hillsboro Boulevard in Manchester with her husband — they renovated the place, opening the Manchester Care Clinic in November 2021 and moving to their new location on McArthur Street almost four years later.
Business grew quickly, giving them over 2,000 patients as of 2025. Now Dawn sees 20 to 25 patients a day, providing the quality care befitting treasured people.
The West Virginia native may have never started the clinic without her daughter, Allie, getting diagnosed with autism.
“I think honestly that’s what pushed me into being a nurse practitioner because I don’t think I would have ever went past being a [registered nurse] if I didn’t have Allie,” the mother said. “She wasn’t able to go to college, so I need to move further in my career so I could help her in the long run.”
That career led to many connections — particularly those made during her time at Hillsboro Elementary School — becoming her future clients as a show of love, loyalty, and trust. Due to such community support, Dawn views her patients as family.
“You feel like you really helped them,” she said. “They come there with a problem, and you had the time, and you invested the time to help them fix it.” GN
