AUSTIN, Texas—A new family wellness center, a primary care facility to provide medical care to low-income, uninsured residents of Austin and Travis County, has been established by The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing.
The Family Wellness Center, at 2901 North IH 35, is equipped with exam rooms, a laboratory, counseling areas and reception area. It is next to the Community Women’s Wellness Center, which has been run by the School of Nursing since 1991 and specializes in breast cancer risk assessment and screening.
The family center also will provide a standardized clinical training program for nursing graduate students.
"The clinic will provide desperately needed health care to hundreds of Travis County residents who are without private insurance," said Dr. Lisa Doggett, who will be the center’s director. "By serving as a medical home to these patients, we also will help keep people out of emergency rooms, where care is far more expensive and less efficient."
Doggett said it is likely that the new center will become a city clinic and federally qualified health center in January. That would allow the center to accept patients with city clinic cards. Negotiations are underway, she said.
"Perhaps equally important, we will serve as a training site for university nurse practitioner students, helping them to master skills in management of chronic disease, acute conditions and preventative medicine," Doggett said. "I look forward to the opportunity to work with my new colleagues at the School of Nursing and to help the Family Wellness Center grow and reach its full potential."
Doggett, the daughter of U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, graduated from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and has worked at the People’s Community Clinic for the past five years.
The School of Nursing also operates the Children’s Wellness Center, a school-based health clinic created in partnership with the Del Valle Independent School District. The children and families served by the clinic are predominantly Hispanic, low-income and medically underserved.
For more information contact: Nancy Neff, Office of Public Affairs, 512-471-6504, or Lisa Doggett, 512-232-3900.
