Garlick & Murray Family Medicine in Pittsboro to join FirstHealth

FirstHealth of the Carolinas will add a fourth convenient care location to its network of community health care offices with the December 2017 opening of FirstHealth Convenient Care in Pinehurst.

The office, to be located at 150 Ivey Lane in Pinehurst (in the Harris Teeter Shopping Center), will begin accepting walk-in patients on Sunday, Dec. 3. Hours will be 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week.

Diedre Bass, PA-C

“We are extremely excited to open our fourth convenient care clinic,” says Dan Barnes, D.O., president of FirstHealth Physician Group.  “Our clinic in Whispering Pines has been very well-received in Moore County, and we believe that this new location will not only be a great benefit for the Pinehurst, Taylortown, West End and Seven Lakes residents but for all Moore County residents.”

“As Moore County continues to grow, especially the Pinehurst area, our goal is to continue to expand services as needed in this community,” adds Dr. Barnes.

The Pinehurst Convenient Care office will serve adults and children with non-emergency medical needs including such ailments as upper respiratory infection, strep, mild asthma, flu and urinary tract infection as well as minor injuries such as cuts, burns and broken bones that have not broken the skin.

Kristen Ross, PA-C

Imaging services, immunizations, and sports physicals will also be among the various services offered by physician assistants Diedre Bass, PA-C, and Kristen Ross, PA-C.

Bass, who received her physician assistant training at Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri, joins the Pinehurst Convenient Care team from the Hamlet Convenient Care location where she has worked for the past two years. Ross received her physician assistant training at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina.

Both are physician assistant-certified.

James Liffrig, M.D., is the medical director of the FirstHealth Convenient Care program, which also serves the Whispering Pines, Sanford, and Hamlet communities.

“The FirstHealth Convenient Care offices provide the communities they serve with easy access to services that fall between the needs of a true emergency – one that requires an emergency room visit – and the preventive care of a primary care provider,” Dr. Liffrig says. “With the additional availability of the ancillary services of imaging and lab, our Convenient Care patients have a ‘one-stop option’ for care provided by a professional medical staff that specializes in unscheduled urgent care.”  

FirstHealth plans to open a fifth Convenient Care location in 2018 in Raeford.

For more information about FirstHealth Convenient Care, call (800) 213-3284 or visit www.firsthealthconvenientcare.org.