West Louisville CenterWell Senior Primary Care is Big Step for Underserved Community

The growth of CenterWell Senior Primary Care reached another important milestone earlier this month. After years of planning, the long-awaited senior-focused primary care center in West Louisville celebrated its grand opening on Sept. 13, 2023.

The new center located at 2950 W. Market St. marks a big step forward for West Louisville, where a collection of older, urban neighborhoods had suffered from a pattern of disinvestment since at least the 1960s. However, current projects and construction are revitalizing the community.

Without easily accessible medical care available nearby, seniors living in West Louisville have had to make appointments across town when they wanted to see their doctor, and then find a way to get there. But now they have a place in their community to receive value-based, whole-person care.

The CenterWell West Louisville clinic is led by Dr. Tamea Evans and KenQuisha Moorman, APRN, who work together to provide a team-based approach to health care that places the patient at the center. The CenterWell Senior Primary Care approach to care also focuses on preventive care and screenings intended to keep patients healthier and reduce risk of illness or hospitalization. The medical team will have more time to spend with each patient to be able to get to know them as individuals and focus on improving outcomes by addressing all factors that affect health, whether physical, behavioral, emotional or social.

Along with its sister brand Conviva Care Center, CenterWell Senior Primary Care operates nearly 260 centers nationwide with an additional 30-50 planned to open by 2025. But CenterWell West Louisville has some features that set it apart from other CenterWell facilities, among them:

• While most centers have been established in existing shopping centers, this one was built from the ground up.
• It’s the culmination of a partnership with the Louisville Urban League.
• It’s situated on a newly redeveloped tract of one-time industrial land adjacent to a new, state-of-the-art sports and learning facility.
• It’s located in an underserved community in Humana’s hometown – a community in which the company has made other investments.

Nick Judd, president of the Kentucky and Indiana markets for CenterWell Senior Primary Care, said the West Louisville center is the embodiment of the company’s strategy to expand access. “We’re very intentional about putting centers in communities that have been historically underserved,” Judd said. “There’s probably no truer expression of that strategy than our new center here in West Louisville. We’re talking about a community that is mostly low income and has had virtually no health care options until now.”

Over the past seven years and through the efforts of the Louisville Urban League and several corporate and government partners, the 24-acre tract at 30^th and Market streets was given a multimillion-dollar makeover. In 2019 the Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center and the Humana Outdoor Track and Field opened, and in September 2022 Humana and the Louisville Urban League broke ground on the new CenterWell facility on the northeast corner of the property.

“This is a truly exciting partnership for us,” said Lyndon Pryor, interim president & CEO of the Louisville Urban League. “We are grateful to have CenterWell here, because it is going to provide really outstanding primary care for our seniors in this community, and that is something that we need more of.”

Pryor and Judd said they are considering ways to cross-promote the sports facility and CenterWell. For example, Judd said, plans are in the works to establish a “walk with a doc” program in which seniors will have a chance to walk with CenterWell clinicians on the nearby track.

Misha Rhodes, M.D., chief medical officer for CenterWell Senior Primary Care’s Kentucky and Indiana market, said the new center in West Louisville is important, but it’s just the start. “Improving the health of the community is more complicated than simply opening a new building,” she said. “We have to build trust with the community. We have to make sure our patients are healthy not only from a physical perspective, but also from a mental, emotional and social perspective. Do they have access to fresh, nutritious food? Do they have transportation? Can they afford their prescriptions? Is their home life safe and dependable? Between our care team and the agencies we partner with, we can and must address all of that.”