Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist is expanding services in East Winston-Salem to better meet the needs of the community.
Beginning Monday, July 1, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist – Winston East, located at 2295 E. 14th St., will add internal medicine, women’s services and on-site lab, pharmacy and imaging to the existing pediatric and occupational medicine services.
Wake Forest Baptist leaders, Winston-Salem elected officials and community members attended a ribbon cutting, community event and open house for the newly expanded facility on Sunday, June 23.
During the event, the legacies of Drs. Charlie Kennedy and Larry Hopkins, African American medical pioneers in Winston-Salem, were honored. Members of the Kennedy and Hopkins families watched the unveiling of the exterior signage to signify the naming of the facility as the Kennedy-Hopkins Medical Building. A plaque was also placed inside the entrance in their memory.
“From the beginning of this expansion project, we gathered input from members of the community to provide more access to high-quality health care close to home that better meets the needs of those who live in East Winston,” said Dr. Julie Freischlag, CEO and chief academic officer, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist; chief academic officer and executive vice president, Advocate Health; and executive vice president for health affairs, Wake Forest University.
Dr. Charlie Kennedy was the first African American resident at Bowman Gray School of Medicine, now Wake Forest University School of Medicine. For 20 years, he was the only Black pediatrician in Winston-Salem.
Kennedy mentored Dr. Larry Hopkins, who graduated from Bowman Gray School of Medicine and was an OB-GYN physician who practiced at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist’s Downtown Health Plaza.
“Drs. Kennedy and Hopkins both had such a profound impact on generations of Winston-Salem residents and by naming this building in their memory, we will always be reminded of our privilege to carry on their legacies through compassionate, patient- and family-centered care,” said Dr. Brenda Latham-Sadler, vice dean and vice chief academic officer for justice, equity, diversity and inclusion and professor of family and community medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
In 2018, Wake Forest University School of Medicine also renamed a mentoring program in their honor. The Kennedy-Hopkins Scholars Mentor Program pairs faculty members with physicians underrepresented in medicine who are pursuing residency and fellowship training.
All of the clinics at Winston East are accepting new patients and appointments can be made by calling the practices directly or through the MyAtriumHealth patient portal.
Wake Forest University School of Medicine’s DEAC (Delivering Equal Access to Care) clinic also provides free services at the Winston East location on Monday evenings. The student-run and physician-staffed free clinic for patients who cannot afford health insurance and do not qualify for government assistance began in 2006 and includes primary care along with services in a variety of specialties.
Media contacts:
Joe McCloskey, jmcclosk@wakehealth.edu
Jenna Kurzyna, jkurzyna@wakehealth.edu