Whispering Pines to Get FirstHealth Family Medicine Office

WHISPERING PINES – Despite the continuing new growth in and around Whispering Pines, its residents have always had to go elsewhere for even their most basic health care needs.

That will change next month with the July 5 opening of FirstHealth Convenient Care and the July 21 opening of FirstHealth Family Medicine in Whispering Pines. The two FirstHealth services will share an entrance into newly constructed space in the Food Lion Shopping Center at  7473-B Highway 22.

Todd Nicholson, PA-C, the experienced physician assistant who will be the primary care provider for the family medicine office, says that the openings come at a very good time for the community.

“With the growth of Whispering Pines, there is an increasing need for medical care, in particular family medical care and convenient care,” he says. “Residents must currently travel outside of the Whispering Pines community to meet their primary and acute-care needs, but may return to the community and have their prescriptions filled at any one of three local pharmacies. Now, with the new FirstHealth facility, they will be able to receive that much-needed care locally.”

According to Nicholson, the new services should also benefit Moore County residents who live near but not in Whispering Pines.

“The new facility will also increase access to care to residents in surrounding communities whose primary care providers are already stretched thin,” he says.

Nicholson joined the FirstHealth network in 2000 at FirstHealth Family Care Center-Carolina Family Medicine in Rockingham after graduating from Methodist College in Fayetteville with a bachelor of health sciences (physician assistant) degree. He moved into private practice in August 2003 but returned to FirstHealth in April 2013 as a physician assistant at FirstHealth Family Medicine in Vass.

The new Whispering Pines family medicine location will be open Monday through Thursday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Fridays from 8 a.m. to noon. While Nicholson will offer the continuing health care oversight and services of a primary care provider, the adjacent convenient care office will be open seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., for non-urgent, walk-in care of simple injuries and common illnesses such as colds, strep throat and sinus infections.

Although Nicholson will be leaving FirstHealth Family Medicine in Vass, that office will remain open with Christine Cowell, PA-C, as the provider. She has been a physician assistant in FirstHealth’s family medicine location in Biscoe for the past two years.

FirstHealth Family Medicine-Whispering Pines is located at 7473-C Highway 22, Whispering Pines, in the Food Lion Shopping Center. To make an appointment with Todd Nicholson, PA-C, call (910) 215-5115. FirstHealth Convenient Care in Whispering Pines is located in the same building. Walk-ins are welcome, and appointments are not necessary.