OhioHealth Welcomes Community Care Clinic to OhioHealth Doctors Hospital
Since opening this summer, the clinic has seen nearly 1,000 patients.
OhioHealth announced today the opening of the OhioHealth Community Care Clinic located at 5131 Beacon Hill Road connected to OhioHealth Doctors Hospital. The clinic is an ambulatory care space designed to provide immediate patient care needs and a bridge to primary care resources for our most vulnerable patients in the community.
The goal of the clinic is to ensure all patients' chronic medical conditions are cared for, including medication refills, vaccinations, and health screenings. The experts will help patients navigate finding a primary care home but offers bridging primary care services until then.
“Together with our family medicine and internal medicine residency programs, we help manage both low-acuity and chronic medical conditions, address underlying social determinants of health, and connect patients to an ultimate primary care home,” Joy Walton, MD, OhioHealth internal medicine-pediatrics physician and Community Care medical director said.
Since opening this summer, the clinic has seen nearly 1,000 patients. It is open five days a week with extended hours to accommodate the community’s needs. No appointments are needed.
“Over half of patients live within a six-mile radius and have barriers such as transportation or food/housing insecurity that drive inequitable health outcomes,” Dr. Walton said, “Additionally, many of our patients live in a primary care desert without access to a primary care provider who can accept new patients, patients without insurance, and offer same-day visits for low-acuity issues.”
According to Dr. Walton, when one couples social determinants, the mismatch of primary care accessibility to patient need, and the incredible complexity of navigating care for patients with multiple co-morbidities, the result is an overutilization of the emergency room and hospital services. Community Care is bridging those gaps by integrating care.
The clinic serves all ages and offers transition of care appointments for patients following a hospital stay who need bridging care.
“For nonemergent cases, we can offer in-house point of care and laboratory services, same-day radiology and cardiac testing,” Dr. Walton said, “We also integrate care by involving the expertise of dietitians, diabetic educators, substance use navigators, wound nurses, and heart failure navigators.”
With the clinic being a graduate education space, the experts within are able to integrate with other specialties such as general surgery, orthopedic surgery, and ENT physicians to offer co-located consultations.
“Additionally, we have pathways to allow for direct admission into the hospital, bypassing an unnecessary emergency room visit,” Dr. Walton said.
Services provided within the clinic:
• Walk in for same-day care without an appointment.
-Chronic diseases, medication refills.
-Infants and children acute care.
-Sick visits.
-Vaccinations all ages.
-Work, sports and school physicals.
• Routine primary care for adults including vaccinations.
• Routine primary care for infants and children including vaccinations.
• Reproductive and maternal health services including postpartum care and lactation visits.
• Transition-of-care visits following hospital discharge.
-After hospitalization discharge coordination.
-Post emergency department visit.
“We understand that your zip code matters more than your genetic code when it comes to health outcomes,” Dr. Walton said, “We are equipped with on-site community health workers and social workers to assist patients with barriers to their care by meaningfully connecting them to resources in our community so that they can achieve their best health for themselves and their families.”
