History

 

Family Health Center of Ashland City (FHCAC) was created by a joint venture of St. Thomas, Baptist and Vanderbilt Hospitals in 1995. They recruited Dr. Scott D. Brown here in 1996; he subsequently bought the practice in 2000 and thus established one of the most longstanding primary care provider offices in Cheatham County. In 2018, Dr. Travis Shivers signed on with the practice to continue our tradition of excellence in healthcare.

The practice was certified as a Rural Health Clinic in 2002, and in 2003 became an approved site of the National Health Service Corps (NHSC). The purpose of the Rural Health Clinics program is to encourage and stabilize the provision of outpatient primary care in underserved rural areas through the use of physicians, physician assistants (PAs), nurse practitioners (NPs) and certified nurse midwives (CNMs). The National Health Service Corps offers financial and other support to primary care providers and sites in underserved communities, and recognizes those practices dedicated to providing quality healthcare regardless of a patient’s ability to pay; as an NHSC-approved site, FHCAC offers a sliding fee scale for self-pay patients. The NHSC also helps in the recruitment of top-notch providers because it offers them the chance to apply for student loan forgiveness.

FHCAC has been staffed by many excellent physician assistants and certified nurse practitioners over the years. Most recently, Certified Physician Assistant Kelsey Schroskey joined our staff in March 2018, and we added Certified Nurse Practitioner Janelle Christensen to our provider roster in June 2019.

In addition to employing a physician assistant and a nurse practitioner, FHCAC also precepts nurse practitioner students from Vanderbilt, Belmont and Tennessee State Universities and physician assistant students from Trevecca Nazarene, Bethel and Lincoln Memorial Universities, as well as South College.