Athens Neighborhood Health Center's McKinley Drive facility reopens for patients

The Athens Neighborhood Health Center will be open for patients Thursday as renovations to the flood-damaged structure is complete and work continues on a major expansion of the medical building.

The center, located on McKinley Drive in east Athens, has served patients, from low-income to the homeless, for more than 50 years.

The center in Athens is one of 25 federally-funded medical centers in Georgia and one of 1,400 nationwide, according to Marcus Garner, who serves as CEO for the facility in Athens.

The current building, leased from the Athens-Clarke County government, is about 5,000 square feet, but work is well underway to add an additional 4,200 square feet.

Patients currently seeking medical help from the Health Center have had to use the facility on College Avenue because busted water pipes in the McKinley Drive building heavily damaged it during a freeze in late December 2022, according to Garner.

Since July, demolition and renovation work has been underway to not only repair the water damage, but redesign the interior of the building, Garner said.

The center had a “soft opening” Tuesday to get the word out that the facility is reopening, Garner said. Patients will be accepted on Thursday.

“When I came on board, I did an assessment and I wanted to expand services and expand the facility based on the need and data on potential patient populations,” Garner said.

Health Center officials went to the Athens-Clarke County Board of Commissioners in 2019 asking to expand the building and the commission agreed with the plan, Garner said.

The Health Center operates sites not only on McKinley Drive and College Avenue, but has a school-based site at the Hilsman Middle School area that focuses on the Clarke County School District.

Busy, loud and fun: Clarke County Teacher of the Year explains why she loves her job

Hospital rankings: 2 Athens area hospitals score A grade in safety, according to nonprofit's analysis

The center, Garner said, does an annual report every February and figures from the past report showed that the health center served about 7,700 patients in 2022.

“Our focus is to provide care to everyone. When I talk to the staff, I want us to provide excellent care regardless if someone is homeless or is the president of a Fortune 500 company,” he said.

The health center charges fees on a sliding scale based on the overall household income, Garner said.

Garner, who has been CEO for the past five years, is originally from Hot Coffee, Miss., and a graduate of Mississippi State University. He came to the Athens facility from the Georgia Primary Care Association, the state office in Decatur that provides technical assistance for the 35 centers throughout Georgia.

The centers in Athens are staffed with medical personnel including five medical doctors, four nurse practitioners, a physician assistant, a dentist and a licensed psychologist.

The new addition will include nine more examination rooms eventually giving the facility a total of 15 such rooms. A newly renovated pharmacy is also installed in the original building.

Garner said he hopes a ribbon cutting can be held for the new addition soon after it is completed at the end of January.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Neighborhood Health Center reopens in east Athens