Piedmont Health (PHS) marks 55 years of service in 2025, celebrating a history built on community trust, resilience, and innovation. What began in 1970 as a single site in Prospect Hill has grown into a comprehensive health system that now provides services at 12 CHC locations and 2 mobile units across multiple counties in North Carolina’s Piedmont region. In 2024, Piedmont Health served more than 47,000 patients, offering care that spans the entire lifespan —from pediatrics to care for seniors. Their growth and years of service reflect a steadfast mission to improve community health through affordable, accessible, and compassionate services.
Piedmont Health was founded by a group of healthcare professionals from the University of North Carolina (UNC) - Chapel Hill who recognized that many families across the region lacked access to basic medical care. These innovators sought to establish a reliable place for any and all community members to access high-quality, affordable, and comprehensive primary healthcare. Originally called Orange-Chatham Comprehensive Health Services (OCCHS), they built trust through relationships - engaging local partners, securing funding, and reaching out to community members — and their reach and impact steadily grew. Prospect Hill became the flagship site, and over the decades, Piedmont Health has evolved and expanded in response to the community’s needs through its groundwork built on effective community engagement.
Piedmont now operates as a multi-service health system, integrating medical care, dental, behavioral health, in-house pharmacies, and WIC nutrition support. As a recognized Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), Piedmont Health emphasizes a team-based care model, providing care coordination and preventative medicine to promote whole-person health. Piedmont Health also operates a school-based health center and mobile dental health and medical units with extended hours, expanding their reach in the rural community and increasing access.
The center’s Agricultural Worker Health Program serves the area’s many migrant and seasonal agricultural workers and their families. The Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) program, called “SeniorCare” helps elders age safely at home and maintain connection with their communities and families. Comprehensive services are provided by an interdisciplinary team of clinicians, social workers, physical and occupational therapists, nursing staff, pharmacists, dieticians and transportation providers. Through a longstanding partnership with UNC Chapel Hill, PHS provide training for Family Medicine residents, helping to build a pipeline of clinicians dedicated to community-based care
Today, as Piedmont Health celebrates 55 years, its mission still rests on the same foundation laid in Prospect Hill: care built on relationships. Whether meeting people where they are with a mobile unit, engaging local community partners, or working with an individual on a complex health or social need, Piedmont Health remains deeply rooted in the lives of the people it serves and responsive to the needs of is unique community.
This article was published in 2025.
