ATLANTA — Leaders from Fulton County and Grady Health System gathered to celebrate the latest effort to close critical health care gaps in Atlanta's West End.
The group held a ribbon-cutting to mark the new Lee+White Outpatient Center in Atlanta, part of Grady and Fulton County's latest effort to address health inequities in the city.
“Grady has worked strategically to identify areas that need better access to medical care, and our new Lee+White location is another step toward filling that gap,” said Shannon Sale, Chief Strategy Officer at Grady. “We are grateful to Fulton County for its continued partnership in our ongoing efforts to provide the community with high-quality, comprehensive care closer to home.”
The clinic's location was chosen by design as part of an effort to address a lack of providers in the area.
"These zip codes don't have enough primary care services," Dr. Kelley Carroll, Chief Ambulatory Office at Grady told 11Alive. "If we count the number of primary doctors compared to the population, we just don't have enough."
Yet, clinic locations such as Lee+White offers an opportunity to meet patients where they are, providing easier access with the aim to improve overall health.
The 16,000-square-foot facility is located at 1000 White Street at the Lee+White complex, a mixed-use development in Atlanta’s West End. The outpatient center will offer primary, geriatric, and orthopedic care. HIV and behavioral health services will also be available. The facility features 20 exam rooms, an on-site pharmacy, two mammography rooms, and X-ray and lab spaces.
The center is part of a growing list of neighborhood clinics Grady has opened; a similar clinic also opened on Cascade Road last year. The effort to reach patients also reached new urgency after Wellstar Health System closed its hospitals in East Point and downtown Atlanta.
"The catalyst for this, quite frankly, was when Wellstar closed," Fulton County Commission Chair Robb Pitts said. "That really impacted a segment of our community. So what Grady is doing with us, really addresses that need. What we're doing is bringing healthcare, health maintenance to the people."
The Lee+White center and staff will aim to improve access to a range of services once doors officially open on Sept. 23. Such preventative care, Dr. Carroll emphasized, is critical.
"We need to avoid patients going to the emergency room for their diabetes or going to the emergency room for their heart failure or because they're out of medication," she said. "If we can prevent that and keep them in primary care, keep them in outpatient care, we'll have less demand for the emergency room, less demand for the inpatient beds that are so important."
The Cascade Road clinic, she added, is already leading to better patient outcomes, while future centers are already being planned at two DeKalb county sites.
Grady has not yet revealed the exact location for those clinics, but in January, DeKalb and Fulton county leaders pledged more than 60 million dollars in support over the next decade to help with the need.
"We're rebounding," Pitts said. "But we're going to need Wellstar's help in the future so we can continue to do what's right by the people of Fulton County."
11Alive reached out to Wellstar for the latest on efforts to support the South and Central Fulton communities following the closures of the two hospitals. A spokesperson pointed 11Alive to the $5 million investment announced in January indicating Wellstar's support over five years to "to help increase services and expand the Southside East Point clinic’s size and capacity."
A spokesperson also shared the joint statement from the City of Atlanta and Wellstar following Monday night's council meeting which elaborated on further progress on the future of the Wellstar AMC site in the Old Fourth Ward:
"The City of Atlanta and Wellstar Health System issued the following joint statement on the passage of the proposed concept plan to transform the former Atlanta Medical Center property.
“Mayor Andre Dickens and Wellstar Health System fully support the Atlanta City Council’s decision to approve Kimley-Horn’s proposed concept plan to transform Wellstar’s property in the Old Fourth Ward.
“Atlanta’s Department of City Planning met with the community and incorporated a great amount of input about what they wanted—including mixed-use development, central greenspace, maintaining some medical use on the site, new street connections and more.
“We are committed to working together to develop a long-term plan that will best meet the needs of the community and Metro Atlanta. We look forward to continuing our partnership and collaborating with residents on a community-driven solution for this important site.”