Southside Medical Center opened its East Point urgent care center and celebrated its grand opening and ribbon-cutting Friday morning.
Southside Medical Center is more than just an urgent care facility. They offer residents in East Point and surrounding communities continued access to quality, convenient urgent care in addition to an array of services such as primary care, women’s health, pediatric, dental, and mental health services, discounted pharmaceuticals, and many others.
Also, Southside Medical has a new X-ray machine, exam rooms, and a procedure room to take in urgent care visitors after receiving $5 million from Wellstar. The money and renovations came after Wellstar decided to close its urgent care operations at Atlanta Medical Center South, a year after it closed the hospital at the exact location.
Dr. David Williams, president and CEO of Southside Medical Center, said the clinic should allow urgent care patients to see primary care doctors for preventative care if their need is not an emergency.
In honor of Black History Month, Williams said that just as Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream, so did the founders of Southside Medical Center almost 60 years ago.
“They had a dream to provide excellent health care in the South Side Community, and those of us who are still here are carrying out this dream,” Williams said. “We all recognize the impact the closing of South Fulton hospitals will have on this community, and I’d like to say before that happened, the leadership of WellStar came to us and shared with us that they did not want to leave this community.”
When Wellstar asked Williams if he was willing to open an urgent care center, recognizing its impact on the community, Williams couldn’t agree more.
“They said the urgent care center won’t solve all the problems, but it’s certainly a spark. We shared with the leadership of Wellstar our dream to create the nation’s first Community Health Center of Excellence, which means it must be more than just a primary care,” he said. “So, we wanted to do things like primary, secondary, tertiary, and hospital care.”
Williams also said, “When one door closes, another opens”.
He said it’s unfortunate South Fulton had to close, but their closing enabled another door to open.
“Our vision was to reopen South Fulton hospital, reopen the emergency room, and provide community care at a level different from what they currently receive,” he said. “I’m pleased to say the South Fulton leadership board agreed, accepted the vision, and has given us the opportunity.”
Currently, according to Williams, Southside Medical does not have emergency care, meaning patients would have to travel to Grady, Piedmont, or Emory.
Additionally, Williams said he hopes within 18 months, they will be able to operate the old hospital, however the plan still needs to find funding. His goal is to have primary, urgent, and emergency care in one location to better meet everyone’s needs.
East Point Mayor Deana Holiday Ingraham said she believes they are dismantling the system of healthcare in the country.
“We need an accessible, affordable, high quality, and comprehensive health care system in our community that includes acute care. Everyone needs a primary care medical home, and that’s what this facility provides; it’s right next door to a place where people used to come for what they felt was the care they needed at the time,” Ingraham said. “So, I’m very optimistic about us being able to connect everyone in the community to a primary care home so that we can continue to help them through their health journey.”
For more information, visit https://southsidemedical.net.