Atrium Health is opening a primary care practice at the YMCA near uptown Monday. The new practice will serve between 16 and 20 patients a day and adds to the physical therapy and rehab services the health system already offers at two other YMCA locations.
Dr. Alisahah Cole with Atrium said it’s part of a larger effort to bring care to patients where they are.
“We really started to think about how do we get primary care out to the community, instead of always expecting you to come in to see me as a practicing family medicine doctor into our clinical care space,” she said.
One goal of locating the practice at the Dowd YMCA on East Morehead Street, Cole said, is to help patients with chronic diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure manage their illness with exercise. The director of the Dowd YMCA, Joe Angelon said it has about 16,000 members. One in four earns less than $20,000 a year.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the proper location of the Dowd YMCA.