Albany Area Primary Health Care (AAPHC) joins the National Association of Community Health Centers and over 1,500 Community Health Centers (CHCs) across the country to celebrate National Health Center Week and recognize the vital role health centers play in providing affordable, effective, comprehensive primary care to more than 52 million Americans, regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. This year, we celebrate how health centers use innovation to reach more patients and improve outcomes.

For 47 years, Albany Area Primary Health Care has provided quality care to southwest Georgia. Beginning with the foundation of primary care in Lee County, AAPHC now offers aesthetics, behavioral health, dentistry, family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and genecology, midwifery, podiatry and ophthalmology. With over 90 providers across 30 locations, AAPHC is one of the region’s largest community health centers. Through our values of compassionate care, community connection and continuous improvement, AAPHC is committed to providing quality health care to everyone.

“AAPHC is proud to be a trusted health care provider to over 53,000 patients annually,” Shelley Spires, AAPHC CEO, said. “Being a community health center, we believe health care should be accessible to everyone. Our teams across 11 counties come to work each day because we love our patients and the communities we serve. During National Health Center Week, we not only recognize the impact CHCs have on the communities they serve, but also the commitment that each of our teams have to our mission – to provide quality health care to everyone.”

Health centers do not just expand access. They improve outcomes and save money. For just 1% of national health care spending, CHCs deliver primary care to 14% of the U.S. population and save the health care system billions of dollars each year by preventing costly hospital visits. Albany Area Primary Health Care is proud to be part of this critical mission.

One-way AAPHC continues to impact the health of southwest Georgia is through the School-Based Health Centers. Through partnerships with seven county school systems, AAPHC manages 14 centers located in schools. At the various locations, students, faculty, staff and parents may have access to primary care, vision, dental, and behavioral health services.

“Removing students from school for a necessary routine check up can be disruptive to the student, teacher, the rest of the class and the parent’s work schedule,” Bebe Hale, School- Based Health Center Supervisor. “With AAPHC School-Based Health Centers we are able to provide care onsite meaning students spend less time away from learning.”

To learn more about Albany Area Primary Care, visit aaphc.org