Contributed
UNC Health Southeastern announced last week that the health system is exploring transfer of ownership of two primary care clinics to neighboring health organizations.
Affiliation discussions with Cape Fear Valley Health to assume the operations of UNC Health Family Medicine at Clarkton and similar discussion with Columbus Regional Healthcare System to assume operations of the UNC Health Family Medicine at Whiteville are being explored.
“We have reviewed our clinical practices in Whiteville and Clarkton and feel that residents of those communities can best benefit from primary care from their local health systems,” said UNC Health Southeastern President/CEO Chris Ellington. “These organizations would be excellent partners with which to transition as they are engrained into the fabric of these communities and will have our patients’ best interests at the forefront of their future plans. Given the lack of primary care in our region, it remains important to us to ensure care remains available and local.”
Providers and employees of both clinics will be invited to transition along with the clinics into the new health systems. Those who would like to remain with the UNC Health Southeastern or UNC Physicians Network would be offered positions within those systems.
Patients of both clinics will be informed as soon as possible when operational plans are more finalized to ensure as seamless a transition as possible for their continued health care.
UNC Health Family Medicine at Clarkton opened in March 2008 as Southeastern Health Center of Clarkton in a temporary, modular building. An open house and ribbon cutting was held later that same year in November for the newly-renovated, permanent facility on Latham Street in Clarkton, which benefited from a $350,000 grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation.
UNC Health Family Medicine at Whiteville, formerly Southeastern Multi-Specialty and Urgent Care Whiteville, opened on Main Street in Whiteville on September 30, 2019. The clinic was the health system’s first in Columbus County and offered urgent care, orthopedics and neurosurgery specialties.
“We have been honored that patients in Whiteville and Clarkton have trusted UNC Health Southeastern with their health care over the years and we feel confident that these transitions will ensure that primary care services will continue to be offered in their community by trusted health care providers,” added Ellington.
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