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GREENSBORO — The staff at Evans-Blount Community Health Center has seen cancer patients, treated people for diabetes, given weight loss advice and in the past year helped to fill a void in a part of the city that has not had a full-service hospital since 1993.

The health center, a public-private partnership between the Guilford County Department of Public Health and Corizon Health, celebrates its first anniversary Tuesday with free blood-pressure and glucose screenings and tours of the 5,000-square-foot facility.

Located on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in southeast Greensboro, the health center has eight exam rooms, a procedure room, a conference room and a small area for lab work. The place is served by a part-time doctor and a full-time nurse practitioner, along with a team of certified nursing assistants. It provides care on a sliding scale depending on income and insurance status.

“Because of the area, we thought it was going to be an older population, but it’s not,” said Cheryl Dance, who works for the public health department and helps oversee operations at the center. “It’s turned out to be a lot of people in their 20s, 30s and 40s. And a lot of people that are employed, whose work does not provide insurance. We base our rates on the Medicaid scale. Like the lowest amount on our scale, if you have no income, would be $31.51 for a visit.”

Planning for the clinic started in 2008, when the public health department formed a task force to interview residents and study health statistics in southeast Greensboro. L. Richardson Memorial Hospital, founded as a black hospital during the Jim Crow era, had served the area until 1993 when it was sold. Today, Kindred Hospital, a long-term acute care center, operates at the site.

But the hospital’s absence left the area’s residents with few options for general health care.

“We needed something where people didn’t have to travel so far and that had Saturday hours that were reasonable so people don’t have to get off work,” said Sharon Hightower, a member of the original task force who now is part of the board. “And a place where people could go to deal with the diseases they have, so that they don’t wind up with catastrophic measures.”

Dance said the center has come close to breaking even this year, though she said she couldn’t disclose exact numbers.
About 35 to 40 people walk through the doors each day.

“I can tell you story after story after story of people who have lost their insurance and simply cannot afford to pay $125, $150 to go see their private doctor,” registered nurse Donna Moore said. “We’ve had a diabetic, who if they were not able to come here, would have lost their foot. We’ve helped diagnose cancer patients. We’ve had several hypertensive patients, had they not gotten in here, probably would have ended up with strokes. ”

Among the patients who frequent the clinic is 27-year-old GTCC student Latisha Gant, who has lost more than 100 pounds with the help of the staff there.

“When I went there for my blood pressure, I was weighing like 355,” she said. “And they said, 'What’s your goal weight?’ And I said 200. They put me on some pills back in February. I was working out, was losing 10, 15 pounds every four weeks. Now, I’m 234. They give you some good advice, treat you how you’re supposed to be treated also. They’ve been good to me.”

Dance said she hopes to expand the center’s outreach and educational efforts.

“High blood pressure and diabetes and weight management seem to be the biggest issues in this community,” she said.

“So we were hoping to be able to offer more classes, get those conditions under control.”

Hightower said she hopes the center continues drawing people from not just the immediate area, but from other parts of town as well.

“I want this to be a place that people can go and know that, in spite of what they don’t have, they are still a patient that needs to be taken care of and have their concerns addressed,” she said.

“If people see there’s a place that people can go that has good health care, but is reasonably priced, they will pay. It makes more sense than going to the emergency room and having a $400 bill you’ll never pay. But, just because you’re not paying top dollar, doesn’t mean you’re not getting quality care.”

Contact Robert C. Lopez at 691-5091 or robert.lopez@news-record.com