New Guilford County Community Clinic Helps Fill the Gap for Uninsured

Cone Health is increasing medical care for Guilford County's uninsured.

Cone Health is expanding primary care services for Guilford County residents who have little or no health insurance. In May, the hospital opened the Cone Health Community Health and Wellness Center.
It's located at 201 East Wendover Avenue in Greensboro.

Steve Anderson, the vice president of the Cone Health Medical Group, says there are an estimated 80,000 Guilford County residents who don't have health insurance. “These folks are going to need care and they're either going to show up in a facility like this where their care can be pro-actively managed over time or they're going to the emergency room. Emergency rooms really are the high cost provider in any health care system," says Anderson. "We feel it's actually going to hold down the cost, hold down the funds Cone has to expend, to care for the individuals in the community.”

Anderson explains, “We're going to move to a team based approach later this summer where providers, whether that's a physician, a nurse practitioner, a physician assistant, or a pharmacy tech, will work in teams to manage a patient's care and provide them a continuum of care from a primary care basis.”

There are two full-time doctors, four clinical staff and three office staff. Currently, they see about 26 patients a day. Later this year, a pharmacy will be added and then they expect that number to increase to about 100 a day. This center fills a huge gap created last year when HealthServe closed on South Eugene Street. A combination of federal grants and funds from the city, county and Cone Health supported this facility. But numerous financial shortages forced it to close.

According to Anderson, the Cone Health Community Health and Wellness Center is fully funded by the hospital and patients aren't expected to pay much for services, if anything at all. But he admits this financial arrangement won't work for the long-term. “With the limited resources the community has for caring for the uninsured , these various agencies and centers around the community, we're really going to have to coordinate what we're doing," he explains. "The last thing we want to do is have a lot of duplication and overlap. We also don't want to create gaps where people fall through the middle.”

Anderson also says specialty services, such as cardiology and diabetic clinics, will be added in the coming months. A transitional care program will also be offered to help individuals who've just been released from the hospital. The hope is this will reduce return visits by giving people better access to primary care.

Currently, the Cone Health community clinic runs Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Later this year, he expects evening and weekend operating hours to be added.