Photos Andy Calvert
On January 30th, 2020, members of the Bartow County Chamber of Commerce, Bartow community members, and a slew of Harbin Clinic partners, employees and leadership gathered at 200 Gentilly Boulevard to celebrate the ribbon cutting for the new Immediate Care and Physical Therapy facilities. Thanks to the addition of the new building next door, Harbin had the opportunity to transform the first level of the clinic into a fully functioning Immediate Care center and Physical Therapy space to better serve the Bartow Community.
Harbin Clinic has an Immediate Care facility in Rome as well and they are working in tandem with the new Cartersville location to ensure that patients continue to receive the highest level of care wherever they are. Coordinators from the Rome Immediate Care, Gay Hawkins and Ashleigh Bolton attended the event and spoke with us about the new facility. Hawkins explains that the Rome facility is “open from 7:30 AM to 8 PM, seven days a week. But here in Cartersville, we will be open 7:30 AM to 8 PM on Saturdays and Sundays for now. Just until we build up the patient numbers, then we will expand.” But even with the limited hours in Cartersville for the moment, the Immediate Care Center is not limited in the services that it will be able to provide the community. Bolton says of the clinic that “we are not exclusive to Harbin patients; we see all patients. We take all insurances. If there happens to be an insurance that we don’t participate with, they will have to self-pay, but they don’t have to be affiliated with Harbin in any way. We’re a community asset.”
The medical services that Harbin Clinic provides for Bartow are numerous and their contributions are not going unnoticed. Ribbon cuttings are a nice way to honor business, but the CEO of the Bartow/ Cartersville Chamber of Commerce, Cindy Williams will tell you that it’s not just about the ceremony, it’s about celebrating the people and businesses that make up the community. During her opening remarks, Williams states “Congratulations to our friends at Harbin when I think about ribbon cuttings we’re very fortunate in this community to celebrate ribbon cuttings on a very regular this is sometimes twice a week that we’re opening things and we’re celebrating and sometimes we forget the impact of this investment. We’re so appreciative but this is an opportunity to say thank you to those who really are opening up a beautiful space providing new services. They poured their heart, their soul and their money into this venture and so we’re deeply appreciative for all that do. Harbin Clinic is truly leading the way in investing in Bartow County and we just couldn’t be any more excited to help celebrate again.”
Celebrating alongside Williams is CEO of Harbin Clinic, Kenna Stock who says “We’re always proud to open new space. We take great delight in doing that and are so fortunate to have a great team that helps make this come true but more importantly it really is the trust of the community. To trust us with their health care and to trust us to expand what we do and to take care of them with bumps and bruises and things that keep us off our feet. I would like to thank the new team that’s joined us and the folks from Rome that are making the Immediate Care come alive here as well and getting us off to a great start but it is really the people that make the difference.” Stock knows the importance of a strong team and Harbin has an amazing roster of strong healthcare professionals in place to make this center function smoothly.
But it’s not just the physical therapy needs that can be met quickly but due to the fact that this center is located in the center of the clinic, patients will have direct access to just about anything they may need. Stock spoke to this incredible opportunity, “People don’t get sick on scheduled time, they get sick anytime and this allows us to expand our time for patients to be seen and not have to go to the emergency room but to be seen closer to their doctors office. Also, this team has access to the patient’s record in our electronic medical records So it’s like they are being taken care of by their own team. We are thrilled about it.” And so is the Bartow Community. Now, Harbin can provide top-quality care when and where you need it without having to go farther than your doctors office.
