Thompson to Return to Area as PA-C in FirstHealth’s Ellerbe Office

Bridget Thompson, PA-C

ELLERBE – Bridget Thompson’s interest in health care began when she was a child and helping care for her elderly grandparents.

“Seeing how, at that time, people of a ‘certain age’ were treated made me want to become an advocate for those whose voices are not always heard,” she says. “Growing up, I realized that not only people of a ‘certain age’ but all people need someone to care enough to be their advocate. That, I feel, is my calling – to be a health care advocate for my patients.”

Thompson, who grew up in the Richmond-Montgomery County community of Windblow, will become a health care advocate in the area she knows so well when she joins FirstHealth Family Medicine-Ellerbe as a certified physician assistant this month.

“I am excited to come back home,” she says. “My goal was always to be closer to family and to be able to provide quality health care to the people and communities that helped mold me into the person I am today.”

According to Dan Barnes, D.O., president of the FirstHealth Physician Group, Thompson will join long-time provider Bo Kopynec, M.D., in offering health care services in the Ellerbe office.

“Ms. Thompson knows the community, and she knows the people who live there,” says Dr. Barnes. “She was trained in one of the best physician assistant programs in the Southeast, and she has several years of experience in providing care in a family care/internal medicine practice. That combination of background and experience should allow her to fit comfortably into our Ellerbe office, making her a welcome addition to the practice that has been served so well and so long by Dr. Kopynec.”

Thompson earned her undergraduate degree in biological sciences and genetics from North Carolina State University in Raleigh and her Master of Health Sciences and her physician assistant certification from the Duke University Physician Assistant Program. She has been a certified physician assistant with Primedical Healthcare in Boone since 2010 and with Glenbridge Health and Rehabilitation in Boone since 2012.

She is a member of the North Carolina Medical Society, North Carolina Academy of Physician Assistants and the American Academy of Physician Assistants.

Thompson says her previous experience in family medicine helped prepare her for her new position in Ellerbe by allowing her to work with various types of people. “Through this diversity of patients, co-workers and colleagues, I have been able to develop and increase my skills to better become the advocate I always hope to be for my patients,” she says.

FirstHealth Family Medicine-Ellerbe is located at 112 E. Ballard St., Ellerbe. To make an appointment with Bridget Thompson, PA-C, or Bo Kopynec, M.D., call (910) 652-2663. Office hours are Monday 7 a.m.-5 p.m.; Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; and Friday: 7 a.m.-noon.