This story has been updated to correct the status of Wellstar Health System’s Atlanta Medical Center-South in East Point. In 2022, Wellstar closed AMC-South’s emergency room and eliminated in-patient beds there, but still sees patients for out-patient treatment.
Fulton County and Morehouse School of Medicine are discussing a plan to open a new primary care clinic in East Point located less than a mile from the former Atlanta Medical Center South hospital, which is now an out-patient clinic.
Commissioners, who have called for an investigation of AMC’s owner, Wellstar Health System, for “redlining” or closing hospitals in majority black and poor areas, on Wednesday discussed the need to act quickly to address the lack of health care access in south Fulton.
Morehouse Healthcare — which is an arm of Morehouse School of Medicine — is asking Fulton to provide $4 million to $5 million to cover the start-up costs for the new clinic, which Morehouse would operate. After the first year of operation, the county would need to provide $2.5 million annually to support operations, Tyndall said. The clinic could generate an estimated $2 million to $3 million in revenue by its fifth year of operation and would work to reduce the total subsidy needed from Fulton over time, according to Morehouse’s calculations.
The clinic would not have an emergency department but would provide another location for primary health care such as regular physician visits and treatment for routine illnesses.
The proposed clinic would be located at 1513 East Cleveland Ave., within the Buggy Works Office Park.
Commissioners Khadijah Abdur-Rahman and Natalie Hall appeared enthusiastic during their comments following the presentation. Commissioner Abdur-Rahman thanked Chairman Robb Pitts for his leadership and work to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.
“This is a serious issue for my district, as several of my colleagues’, and I think it should be treated as a serious issue that needs a resolve [or] at least a start,” Khadijah Abdur-Rahman, Fulton County Commissioner for District 6, said.
Officials said that the proposed clinic would be accessible to 189,000 residents throughout several underserved zip codes, including 30311, where Abdur-Rahman lives.
Wednesday’s presentation and discussion were a follow-up from an April 12 board of commissioners’ meeting where Morehouse and consultants Ernst & Young presented a report on health care access in south Fulton.
According to the report, south Fulton has no specialists in areas of critical need such as cardiology, pulmonology and infectious disease. These doctors care for patients with heart disease, respiratory diseases and HIV and AIDS, all of which are conditions that heavily affect the people living in the area. The region’s 234,000 residents are also limited to two oncology and six neonatal specialists, while wait times at Atlanta’s remaining hospitals are higher than national and state standards and facilities are overcrowded.
“This is a unique opportunity to say we know what the disparities and outcomes are today,” Dr. Joseph Tyndall, dean of Morehouse School of Medicine said. “We have a sense speaking to our own citizens what their needs are, and we can build what our community needs now.”
Along with using the clinic to fulfill the primary care needs of residents, Morehouse wants to provide wraparound services, such as behavioral health, and plans to use community health workers to address some needs.
Hours for the site will be extended to serve patients beyond 5 p.m. and on weekends.
Once an agreement is reached between Fulton County and Morehouse, Tyndall said it would take 90 days to get the site up and running. He went on to say that this would be the first of a series of steps to add health care resources to the area.
Bridget Thorne, Fulton County Commissioner for District 1, noted that the proposed location is across the street from Grady’s East Point Health Center and that Grady is planning to open additional clinics in south Fulton. She also raised concerns about the proposed cost of the agreement with Morehouse.
“This is an ‘and’. We know that there are other assets in (the) location, but we also know that that cannot be done alone,” Tyndall explained. “They’re not enough assets in (the) location to be able to impact the care that we desire and the outcomes that we desire.”
County commissioners have allocated $5 million in the current budget to be spent on health care needs.
In 2022, Wellstar closed AMC-South’s emergency room and eliminated in-patient beds there, but still sees patients for out-patient treatment.
The Fulton board on Wednesday voted 5-0 to approve a resolution allowing for an negotiation of an agreement between the county and Morehouse School of Medicine to provide health care services for Central and South Fulton County. The Commission could approve an agreement at the next meeting on May 2.
“Fulton County is trying to resolve this issue, and this is where we start,” said Abdur-Rahman.
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