A 30-year-old charity clinic in Nashville opened its first satellite location on Tuesday. And it just so happens to be in one of the zip codes hardest hit by COVID-19.
Leaders of Siloam Health say plans to open a clinic in Antioch have been in the works for years, well before the pandemic arrived in Nashville.
“It tells me that I think God knew what he was doing when he nudged us in this direction,” says Dr. Morgan Wills, who is CEO.
Siloam raised $3.5 million to build the facility, with most of the money coming from the Frist Foundation. The clinic sits above an immigrant-run pharmacy owned by the son of a former Siloam patient.
“He’s an immigrant from Egypt himself, kind of living the American dream in many ways, and now he’s our landlord,” Wills says.
Siloam chose Antioch initially because so many of their immigrant patients were having trouble getting to their original clinic in Melrose.
One of the city’s drive-thru testing locations is just down the road from the new facility on Murfreesboro Pike. So Wills says Siloam won’t be offering diagnostic testing. But he says those who test positive with COVID-19 will be directed to Siloam for care, if they don’t have their own doctor.
Siloam’s Antioch clinic will also be the home-base for the city’s outreach workers recently hired to assist with contact tracing in immigrant communities.
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