FORT VALLEY, Ga. — The city of Fort Valley has partnered with CareConnect to expand its convenient care facility and to improve the quality of life in town.
Now, the CareConnect Convenient Care Facility in Fort Valley has gotten a makeover, and more resources for the community.
With four new exam rooms, nursing stations, two new restrooms and more, they expect to see around 1,300-1,400 patients a month getting the healthcare they need. Now, patients have access to primary care, exams, screenings, prescriptions and more.
There was a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday to welcome the new and improved CareConnect Convenient Care Facility.
Staff members, community leaders such as the CEO of CareConnect Dr. Ajay Gehlot, Fort Valley's mayor Jeff Lundy, and U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff were there to continue their work with affordable health care in Central Georgia.
They talked about how this facility aims to serve predominantly low-income patients in the rural city of Fort Valley.
"It's been in the works for a couple of years and it reflects teamwork," Senator Ossoff said. "It represents the community pulling in together with the clear, unified vision for a project that could raise the quality of life."
Danielle Clark is an operations manager with CareConnections and has been there for seven years.
They have three nurse practitioners and three nursing staff on call.
Clark says she's always felt a need to help others, and she's looking forward to building more trust with her patients.
"Once we build those relations with them, they know that we'll take care of them," Clark said. "It's important to have convenient cares in rural communities like this just because they don't have a lot of options to choose from to get the care that they need without traveling to Macon or into Warner Robins, having this nearby is very beneficial."
And it's right in the heart of Fort Valley!
After this two-year-long expansion, CareConnect hopes to expand patient's access to healthcare services.
"This is new and exciting to be able to add on and have more rooms for patients to be seen," Clark said.
Senator Ossoff initially granted $430,000 dollars to the facility's expansion.
CareConnect Convenient Care is located at 209 N Camellia Blvd. in Fort Valley. They're open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and accept walk-ins.