Appalachian Mountain Community Health Center provides county care
Tallulah – Appalachian Mountain Community Health Center on Tallulah Road in Graham County has roots stretching back to the 1940s, when Drs. Nettie and Dick Parette established their practice in Robbinsville.
When they retired, Dr. Patricia Johnson – known as “Mother of Medicine” in Graham County – started running the practice.
All three have bridges named after them in Graham County, but they also are a bridge to health care today.
Today, the center founded by the Parettes and grown by Dr. Johnson is part of Appalachian Mountain Community Health Centers, which provides quality, affordable health services at six locations throughout western North Carolina, serving patients in Buncombe (three locations in Asheville), Cherokee (Peachtree), Graham (Tallulah) and Jackson (Sylva) counties.
Appalachian Mountain Community Health Centers is a Federally Qualified Health Center, a community-based health care provider that receives funds from the Health Resources & Services Administration’s Health Center Program to provide primary care services in underserved areas.
Federally-qualified health centers must meet a stringent set of requirements, including providing care on a sliding fee scale based on ability to pay and operating under a governing board that includes patients.
Appalachian Mountain Community Health Centers is part of a network of over 1,400 other similar health centers operating in the United States. For over 50 years, the Community Health Center program has been growing as a broad-based, bipartisan movement to ensure access to high-quality primary care.
“For you, that means we deliver timely, comprehensive, and quality health services to our most vulnerable and high-risk populations with dignity and respect – regardless of a person’s ability to pay,” according to the health center’s literature. “What makes us even more unique is that we integrate behavioral health (i.e., mental health services) into the primary care setting. Why not take care of the entire person – mind, body, and spirit – at one location, during one visit. We believe it’s possible. We believe it’s the right way to do health care.”
Patient-centered
Appalachian Mountain Community Health Center became affiliated with the Talulah clinic starting in 2016 and it became a fully fledged part of the group in 2018.
From the time you walk through the door, through when they take vitals, address your concerns, and connect you to community resources, the staff at Appalachian Mountain Community Health Center embodies care.
“We partner with you to help you stay well, knowing you are the expert in your own care,” according to the centers’ literature.
Their services encompass individualized treatment, health education, and community assistance from a team of providers that include physicians, nurses, Licensed Clinical Social Workers, community health workers, and peer support specialists.
Appalachian Mountain Community Health Center never turns away patients based on their ability to pay. It accepts many major insurance plans, including Medicaid and Medicare. It also offers pricing discounts and sliding scale fees, based on a patient’s family size and income. Discount medications are also available.
Services at the Talulah center include Primary Care, Same-day Acute Care, Women’s Health, Behavioral Health, Pediatrics, Pharmacy, and Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioids.
Its doctors and practitioners can give you your annual physical (from team sports to commercial driver’s license), treat an infection, or just keep you healthy. They can also suture a wound, stabilize a fracture and perform skin lesion biopsies.
Kristen Shuler, a family nurse practitioner and director of clinical services, and Kaitlyn Breiten, Women’s Health nurse practitioner, provide a range of Women’s Health services including breast and pelvic exams and obstetrics care — saving expecting moms the long drive to neighboring counties for care during their pregnancies.
Appalachian Mountain Community Health Center is in the process of developing a mobile mammography vehicle that will be available in Graham County on a regular basis.
Clinical pharmacist Kailey Hoots can assess the status of the patient’s health problems and determine whether the prescribed medications are optimally meeting the patient’s needs and goals of care.
Care Manager Rebeka Franklin works with patients needing support such as post-hospitalization followups, housing, transportation, and even employment assistance — “resources they may not know exist,” she said.
“We gather information and make sure they schedule followups to ensure they don’t go back into the hospital,” she said.
The center can even perform moderate-complexity labs.
Affordable care
The clinic accepts a wide range of health insurance, and in cases when a patient is uninsured, they will look at the patient’s income and size of family that they support to see if they qualify for a discounted co-pay.
“We try to make sure they can afford their health care,” said Shuler. The centers receive federal dollars to defray the cost of treating the uninsured, but grants and proceeds from paying patients and insurance help as well. The pharmacy – which has access to steep wholesale discounts on many prescription medications, because of its status as a Federally Qualified Health Center – is also helpful to the clinics’ bottom line.
How to connect
The Tallulah health center and pharmacy are located at 409 Tallulah Road in Robbinsville.
Call (828) 479-6434 to make an appointment at the health center. Hours are 7 a.m. – 6 p.m., Monday – Friday.
The pharmacy can be reached at (828) 479-4039. Hours are 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., Monday – Friday.
All new patients will need to fill out a new patient form packet. Go to amchc.org/new-patient-form-downloads to download forms and fill them out in advance. Or plan to come to your first appointment 15 minutes early to fill out your new patient forms.