Convenient Care clinic ‘a health insurance policy’

Jackson: New office ‘really meets a need’

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com

By Kevin Spradlin
PeeDeePost.com

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ROCKINGHAM — Richmond County Commissioner Don Bryant called the new FirstHealth Convenient Care office “kind of like a health insurance policy.”

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com Dr. Lisa Cowan, of Hamlet, speaks about the opening of the FirstHealth Convenient Care office Monday morning during a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Richmond County Chamber of Commerce.

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
Dr. Lisa Cowan, of Hamlet, speaks about the opening of the FirstHealth Convenient Care office Monday morning during a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Richmond County Chamber of Commerce.

“I really don’t want to come here as a patient, but it’s nice to know it’s only a few blocks down the road,” Bryant said this morning shortly before the clinic opened at 921 S. Long Dr. in Rockingham.

City and county dignitaries joined some three dozen FirstHealth employees during a ribbon-cutting with the Richmond County Chamber of Commerce. The Convenience Care office is the second for FirstHealth; the first opened in July 2012 in Hoke County. The Convenience Care office is intended to meet the need for those seeking health care for common ailments, such as simple broken bones, stitches, lacerations, splints, sprains, minor burns, allergic reactions, asthma attacks, cold and flu symptoms, infections, nausea and vomiting and more. It aims to take away the strain placed on emergency departments, especially the period between Friday afternoon and Monday morning when people don’t have access to their primary care physicians.

Officials estimated up to 25 patients per day could be seen during each eight-hour shift at the office once word spreads of its availability.

The office at 921 S. Long Dr., Suite 4, is located beside FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital. The Convenience Care office is open from noon to 8 p.m. seven days a week. No appointment is needed. Insurance is accepted and includes Medicaid, Medicare and Tricare.

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com Commissioner Don Bryant

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
Commissioner Don Bryant

That office, the new one in Richmond County and a third scheduled to open next month in Whispering Pines all will be supervised by Richmond County  native Dr. Lisa Cowan.

“There’s a huge demand,” said Cowan, 45, who has been with FirstHealth since she opened the Hoke County facility in July 2012.

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com Dr. Lisa Cowan, with scissors, stands with (left to right): Emily Tucker, Richmond County Chamber of Commerce president; Brian Baucom, vice chair, Chamber of Commerce board of directors; Rockingham Mayor Steve Morris; County Commissioner Don Bryant; and John Jackson, CEO of FirstHealth Richmond.

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
Dr. Lisa Cowan, with scissors, stands with (left to right): Emily Tucker, Richmond County Chamber of Commerce president; Brian Baucom, vice chair, Chamber of Commerce board of directors; Rockingham Mayor Steve Morris; County Commissioner Don Bryant; and John Jackson, CEO of FirstHealth Richmond.

Cowan said so many currently have no place to go when seeking treatment for such common health care needs. Some, she said, choose not to be treated because of the lack of access.

“You don’t have to wait until Monday morning if you have a sick child,” Cowan said.

Cowan emphasized those who need “urgent,” but not “emergent” care can seek the services of the new Convenience Care office.

Rockingham Mayor Steve Morris said that when Richmond Memorial Hospital was first under construction in the 1960s, “no one expected something like this. What a tremendous facility.”

 

 

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