Walmart Health Centers continue commitment to healthcare in Austin, Chatham
BY TIA CAROL JONES
Walmart Health Center hosted grand re-openings at their Chatham and Austin locations during the week of Oct. 24-28.
The Austin Walmart Health Center, located at 1715 N. Kilpatrick Ave., opened in 2021 and the Chatham Walmart Health Center, located at 8410 S. Holland Road, opened in 2020. Residents are able to receive primary care, see a dentist, get a physical, as well as get behavioral health
assistance. It provides one-stop dentistry, optometry and audiology. There also are community health workers who serve as patient advocates for resources. There are between 15-20 team members servicing all
modality lines.
In addition to the two locations in Chicago, there are currently Walmart Health Centers in Arkansas, Georgia, Florida and Texas.
Daniel Czwornog, Administrator of the Austin Walmart Health Center, believes having a facility like this that provides healthcare to residents of Austin, and the surrounding communities, is important because it provides access to healthcare.
Dr. Soujanya Chinni Pulluru, Vice President of Clinical Operations at Walmart, acknowledged that the communities where the Health Centers are located are health care deserts.
Patients are able to receive care regardless of having insurance and Walmart Health provides transparent pricing for services. From the minute patients walk through the door, they understand the cost associated with getting the care they need. Flexible payment plans also are available.
“We want to be a gamechanger with this. We want to take care of our patients’ needs first. We will provide that care whether they’re uninsured or underinsured. Our primary focus is patient first,” Czwornog said.
Pulluru said the patient first model is a core tenet of Walmart’s healthcare services. Walmart entered into healthcare and pharmacy in 1978 and then into clinics in 2019.
“Our core philosophy is we want to server everybody,” she said.
Cwornog said Walmart is proud to have a Health Center in Austin and be able to provide access to care for all the modalities – optometry, behavioral health, telemedicine, primary care services, dentistry. The goal is for the patients to be physically and mentally fit and live their best lives.
“This is a really big deal for us. We opened these clinics when this community was struggling in the pandemic with COVID and as we saw, there’s huge healthcare disparities and outcomes in particularly Black and Hispanic communities. The communities surrounding this store suffered
during the COVID and the pandemic. So, being able to open this at the time, was meaningful for us,” Pulluru said, adding that transformation begins with providing healthcare access.
Walmart Health has invested a significant amount to bring improvements. One is a new electronic health system, Epic, which connects Walmart Health to local hospitals and other entities. It enables Walmart Health to see a patient’s health records. The other is to ensure patients can be seen
on their own terms.
The Health Centers are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Friday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; and closed on Sunday. Tele-health services also are available on Sundays. For more information about Walmart Health, visit
walmarthealth.com.
