Waco Family Medicine is Working to Drive Solutions
by Jackson Griggs, MD, FAAFP, Chief Executive Officer, Waco Family Medicine
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obust population health data makes it clear: a strong primary care foundation offers communities lower-cost, higher-quality healthcare with fewer population health disparities. Access to a regular primary care physician is associated with better prevention, fewer hospitalizations, fewer unnecessary emergency department visits, and less need for specialist services. During a period of time in our community when efforts are mounting to reduce unnecessary emergency department use, increase health equity, and decrease the overall cost of healthcare, Waco Family Medicine is committed to the day-to-day work of driving solutions. Waco Family Medicine (WFM), known until recently as Family Health Center, has a mission of increasing access to and availability of high-quality, comprehensive primary and preventative healthcare for the vulnerable in the Heart of Texas; and providing an excellent educational, training, and research environment in the 24 | SPRING 2021
Patients have trust in Waco Family Medicine that spans generations. Baby Genesis was delivered to mother Karla and father Juan by Dr. Jose Sepulveda. Karla was delivered to her own mother by a Waco Family Medicine provider just a couple decades before.
medical, dental, and behavioral health fields. The organization has served the residents of McLennan County for 51 years, officially starting in July of 1970 in the basement of Waco’s Providence Hospital when it was located at the intersection of 18th Street and Colcord Avenue. The originating concept for the organization started in the late 1960s, when the McLennan County Medical Society established the center to address the related problems of a shortage of physicians, a lack of access to primary care for low-income residents, and economic development issues. Specifically, emergency services were inadequate, hospitals were financially strained with a substantial burden of uncompensated care, and the population in poverty was severely underserved. Additionally, local leaders knew that the physician population was small and advanced in years, and the community needed to attract young physicians to the area.
