Hamilton Community Health Network expands to serve Whitmore Lake area

Whitmore Lake residents now have more affordable, accessible options when it comes to healthcare services thanks to Hamilton Community Health Network (HCHN)’s newest clinic. Located at 10 Jennings Road, the community health center opened on Sept. 16, 2024.

Residents of all ages can schedule appointments for comprehensive medical and behavioral health services at the Hamilton-Whitmore Lake Clinic. The new clinic is made possible by HCHN, the University of Michigan School of Nursing, and Whitmore Lake Area Human Services.

This marks the ninth facility within the network of federally qualified health center locations which was established in Flint in 1983. 

The new expansion aligns with Hamilton’s mission to serve the medically underserved and to provide basic primary care and prevention services. HCHN Chief Executive Officer, Clarence R. Pierce, says the clinic is the first of its kind in the Whitmore Lake community.

“Whitmore Lake is more of a rural community, it’s not the typical urban community where most of our sites are, but people have needs in those communities as well,” Pierce says. “You have farmers and other residents who have to travel a distance to access healthcare. What we wanted to do was make sure they had access to good basic primary care. Otherwise, most people would have to travel somewhere between 25-30 minutes to get a primary care physician.”

Hamilton's Chief Executive Officer, Clarence R. Pierce, delivers a speech during the opening of the Whitmore Lake location on Sept. 16, 2024.
Hamilton provides a sliding fee scale for patients to ensure equitable, affordable access to healthcare, enabling uninsured people to still have low-cost medications, prescriptions, and medical, dental, and vision care.

They also have a partnership with the University of Michigan, providing specialty care including urology, women’s health, and podiatry services. A mobile van also provides mammography services and transportation from the patient’s home and back from the clinic through People’s Express.

“We have a complete program of services and are able to refer or ensure that our patients are getting all of the services they need at Hamilton,” says Pierce. “The Whitmore Lake clinic is a two-provider office. We don’t have the volume of patients in that area, but we do have the ability to refer them to our other centers with full services, primarily in the Flint area.”

Hamilton staff members celebrate the opening of the Whitmore Lake location on Sept. 16, 2024.At the clinic, patients can receive vaccinations, primary care visits with physicians, and the 340B pharmacy program provides medications at a greatly reduced cost for those on medical assistance or the uninsured. This can be particularly helpful for patients dealing with diabetes or hypertension and the costly medicine to treat those conditions. It’s also a highlight of the Hamilton mission and program, says Pierce. 

Since opening the clinic earlier this month, Pierce says the community response has been positive.

“We are getting a lot of local support from some of our partners right in the community and we feel pretty confident that it is going to grow,” he says. “What I think we are very good at is partnering with other healthcare-related services. We don’t duplicate what someone else is doing, but we collaborate and partner with providers that can enhance what we can do. That allows us to expand our services and allows these other organizations to do what they do best, and allows us to do what we do best. We’ve found that this model works very well.”

The clinic is located next to the Whitmore Lake Area Human Services’ food pantry. To schedule an appointment, call (734) 257-9100. 

“I hope the people in the Whitmore Lake community will be able to get something from this, and we look forward to seeing anyone and everyone who would like to become a patient there,” says Pierce.