Extended Hours Make a Difference

The Downtown Health Plaza plays a crucial role in the community by serving many of Forsyth County’s uninsured and underinsured residents in its state-of-the-art home at 1200 Martin Luther King Drive in Winston-Salem.

Between July 2009 and June 2010, more than 61,000 patients visited the Downtown Health Plaza, duplicating the number of visits from the previous year. One of the key differences, though, is that many of those patients are now able to take advantage of the Downtown Health Plaza’s new after-hours clinic.

With the help of a $175,000 state grant, the Downtown Health Plaza in May 2010 began staying open an extra three hours weekdays, until 8 pm. And it also was able to offer 9 am to 1 pm hours on Saturdays and 1 to 5 pm on Sundays.

Robert E. Jones, PhD, director of the Downtown Health Plaza, is thrilled with the response from the community, which is averaging 340 visits a month during the extended hours.

“It’s really improved access to care,” Jones says.

The side benefit to the community? The extended hours at the Downtown Health Plaza are easing the burden on emergency departments at local hospitals.

The Northwest Community Care Network, which provides care for the Medicaid population in this part of the state, says the use of emergency departments for non-emergency medical care dropped in each of the first eight months the extended hours were offered.

In addition to its medical care, the Downtown Health Plaza promotes nutrition and health diets. And its community garden, begun in 2009, is now providing free fresh produce to many of its patients.

Food is brought in on carts, and “patients take things they like,” Jones says.

The community garden has been important for some people in particular, “especially those that live in housing where they don’t have access to fresh produce.”  

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