Resurrection Health opens its doors to the under-served

The diversity of innovative healthcare options available for the un-insured in Memphis is growing still. Well-known local physicians Dr. Rick Donlon and Dr. David Pepperman announced this week the launch of Resurrection Health – a faith-based health service organization intended to holistically meet the primary care needs of those in the community who do not have access to quality health care. 

The organization has a staff of 20 health care providers, with Donlon serving as Chief Executive Officer and practicing physician of Resurrection Health, and Pepperman as Chief Medical Officer and laboratory director.

Along with two other doctors, the pair behind Resurrection Health launched Christ Community Health Services in 1995, an organization designed to provide healthcare to underserved populations. Both Donlon and Pepperman had been with Christ Community since its creations and will now continue that commitment to serving the city’s most marginalized through the new endeavor.

Resurrection Health’s primary health center opened last week at 4095 American Way, an area of southeast Memphis with very few primary healthcare facilities. More than 200,000 low-income residents of western and southeastern Shelby County struggle to find primary care in their communities.

The 7,100-square-foot health center is open Monday through Friday during regular hours and offers a 10-person clinical staff providing broad-spectrum primary care, including focus areas in prenatal care, pediatrics, women’s health, HIV/AIDS care, and adult and geriatric medicine, along with general surgery offerings.

“We chose to begin our organization’s journey in southeast Memphis after identifying the intense need for these services in this primary care desert,” Donlon said. “In this area, patients are competing with patients for doctors, and we intend to change that as we grow Resurrection Health and increase the community’s access to quality medical care.”

In addition to seeing patients at the primary clinic, Donlon and other Resurrection Health physicians took over 24/7 emergency room operations at Delta Medical Center in mid-December. They also have a location dedicated to general surgery at 3960 Knight Arnold.

Plans are already in place for the organization to open a second primary care location this year.

Resurrection Health’s approach is holistic in nature in the hopes of driving down the cost of care for this population. Inpatient care and emergency room visits are the most costly components of patient care, so they hope to grow to build multi-level relationships across the medical landscape. This system would include incorporating dentistry, optometry and pharmacy offerings to impact the community’s health in a proactive way.

“Limited access to affordable quality care can lead to more serious health care issues and more expensive services for people as they age,” Donlon said. “We believe that by delivering quality medical care to the city’s underserved populations, we are not only saving lives, but we also have the opportunity to drive down the cost of health care across the board.”

Additionally, the Resurrection Health team looks to share their holistic approach to primary care by incorporating a residency program to develop new medical residents with this philosophy as they become practicing physicians.