Dawson Medical Center launches expanded medical services

DAWSON — Dawson Medical Center unveiled a brand new facility Wednesday with room for additional health-related services, including vision, dentistry and behavioral health.

The facility has been a long time coming, Shelley Spires, Albany Area Primary Health Care’s CEO, said during a ribbon-cutting event Wednesday.

“This was something we have dreamed of and envisioned, and it’s nice to see it finally happen,” Spires said.

The new medical center is now open at 505 Forrester Drive SE, a major road connecting Dawson to surrounding cities like Albany and Leesburg. The facility provides primary care, internal medicine, pediatrics, podiatry, dentistry, optometry and behavioral health, all under one roof.

It’s a “one stop shop” for people who originally may have had difficulty receiving these services, Spires said.

“Even though it’s … just right up the road to Albany, that’s sometimes a huge journey for a lot, and we were able to bring it right here to you all,” she said.

The center wouldn’t have been opened without the community, Spires said. The land for the new center was donated by two community members.

“We certainly hope everyone sees and appreciates their support to the community in which they live,” she said.

The center also received a Capital Development Grant, which contributed to the building of the new facility. Dawson Mayor Robert Aaron said during the groundbreaking that he travels up and down Forrester Drive all the time. He watched the facility “come up from the ground up.”

This facility will serve people from all over the region, not just Terrell County, he said.

“Years ago we used to have to go to other places to get affordable health care, but now we have it right here in Dawson,” the mayor said.

State Sen. Freddie Powell Sims, D-Dawson, attended the grand opening.

“Communities are only as strong as their health care systems … especially in the rural parts of the state,” she said. “We are so appreciative of AAPHC. Not only are you here, but you’re all over the place.”

The center is working to make the community stronger and understands the needs of rural Georgians, Sims said.

State Rep. Gerald Greene, R-Cuthbert, also attended and addressed the crowd.

He helped “throw the dirt” on the land that houses the new center, and he’s been waiting to see the facility completed, Greene said.

“It’s not only for Terrell County,” he said. “Our region needs this type of building — this type of health service.”

Greene is the chairman of the state House’s Rural Development Council, and a major goal of that group is rural development regarding health, he said.

“We need it,” Greene said.

Dr. Edward Vance pointed out that the definition of “primary care” has expanded, and AAPHC meets the needs. People need dentistry, optometry and behavioral health care, he said.

“When you’re stressed out, when you’re anxious, when you have depression, you need to see somebody,” Vance said. “You shouldn’t hold it in. So this community now has a community center that really fills the name community health center.”

Community connection and passionate care are some of the main values of AAPHC.

“You can see the community right here in this building,” Vance said. “We’re a community, and we’re making it more so with the services we provide here.”

Terrell County Commissioner Brad Stafford partially donated the land that houses the new center. He is the AAPHC board chair

“It’s an exciting time for this county and the surrounding areas,” he said.

The Dawson Medical Center saw 10,337 people in the last year, Stafford said. Terrell’s population was 8,964 as of the 2021 U.S. Census Bureau, meaning the clinic’s touch expands beyond the county’s population.

This is the second expansion of services for AAPHC within about two months. The Lee Health Center also unveiled a new facility in July with expanded services. The expansions to have numerous services all under one roof is all about giving patients the opportunity to receive multiple forms of health care on the same day and in the same place, Clifton Bush, the AAPHC COO, said.

Bush, who has watched AAPHC grow from seven centers to 33 in his 18 years with Dawson Medical Center, said it’s all about access. Before, he noted, there were no optometrists in this area so people had to travel elsewhere to receive that care, which can be especially difficult for those without transportation.

When he first began working at Dawson Medical Center, Bush said he knew of many patients who walked to the clinic to receive care. The location of this new facility makes it more accessible for people with those needs.

AAPHC works to provide accessible and affordable care to those with chronic diseases as well — an issue that disproportionately impacts rural Georgians, according to an editorial in the Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association.

Rural Georgians experience higher death rates due to heart disease, stroke, cancer and motor vehicle accidents as well as increased prevalence of chronic conditions like diabetes.

AAPHC also works to provide crucial medications at affordable prices through its two pharmacies and the 340B Drug discount program. While there is no pharmacy in the Dawson Medical Center, patients in the city and county can have medications delivered.

The school-based health centers are also a source of pride for AAPHC. In Terrell’s school system, there is a health clinic that provides primary care services for students, their siblings and even their parents, school faculty and staff. A nurse practitioner works inside the school.

“Those things help keep the kids in school; if we weren’t there, there’s only so much a school nurse can do,” Bush said.

Having these services also helps maintain the population in Terrell County, Bush said.

“If these services weren’t here … and people didn’t have access to transportation, they probably would move elsewhere like to Albany to have that access,” he said.