FirstHealth to Move Convenient Care from Rockingham to Hamlet

HAMLET – Richmond County residents needing non-emergency care for such common ailments as cold, flu, strep throat and minor injuries will soon have a more easily accessible resource with the move of FirstHealth’s Convenient Care office from Rockingham to Hamlet.

On Feb. 1, the Convenient Care office now housed in the medical office building adjacent to FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital in Rockingham will open in a convenient new location on Highway 74 Business in Hamlet, across the street from Sandhills Regional Medical Center and Richmond Community College. The move is the latest in a series of changes involving services at Sandhills Regional, which was acquired by FirstHealth of the Carolinas in December, and Richmond Memorial Hospital.

The relocation of the FirstHealth Convenient Care office to Hamlet will precede the already announced March 6 closing of the emergency department at Sandhills Regional. Patients needing emergency care should then go to Richmond Memorial Hospital 3 miles away.

The address for the Convenient Care office in Hamlet will be Suite 4, 1021 W. Hamlet Ave.

“As we looked at the emergency department volumes at Sandhills Regional, we determined that many patients actually are not emergency cases and would be better served by a convenient care than an emergency department,” says Dan Barnes, D.O., president of the FirstHealth Physician Group. “With its location on Highway 74 Business, the building housing the new Hamlet convenient care office is also more visible and more easily accessed than the current location on the Richmond Memorial campus.”

According to Dr. Barnes, FirstHealth Convenient Care in Hamlet will be staffed by a medical team consisting of Diedre Bass, PA-C, and Al Barber, PA-C, and supervised by James Liffrig, M.D., a board certified physician specializing in family medicine. Dr. Liffrig also supervises FirstHealth Convenient Care offices in Whispering Pines in Moore County and Sanford in Lee County.

Bass, who received her Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies from Missouri State University, has more than five years of experience in emergency medicine. A 20-year veteran of the Air Force and a certified physician assistant for 18 years, Barber received his Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies from the University of Nebraska Medical Center School of Medicine.

In addition to the treatment of non-emergency sickness and injuries, services provided by FirstHealth Convenient Care in Hamlet will include X-ray, sports physicals and immunizations.

Appointments are not necessary for the FirstHealth Convenient Care location in Richmond County. For more information, call (910) 417-4100.