Olde Towne Medical & Dental Center
Fostering Teamwork, Community Partnerships
Aaron Thompson serves as executive director and CEO of Olde Towne Medical and Dental Center in Williamsburg.For the past four years, Aaron Thompson has commuted from Henrico County to serve as executive director and CEO of Olde Towne Medical & Dental Center in Williamsburg. As a prior resident of Williamsburg for many years, he had driven past the center – which shares building space with James City County Human Services Center – to take his son to play soccer at the Williamsburg Indoor Soccer Complex. Like many locals, he never knew Olde Towne was there. With the help of Olde Towne’s numerous community partners, including TowneBank, he’s trying to change that.
Olde Towne Medical & Dental Center first opened its doors 31 years ago on July 6, 1993, as a nonprofit, community-based rural health clinic providing health and wellness care to a growing population of residents living and working in the greater Williamsburg community. It was established with a mission to provide quality, cost-effective, coordinated, and preventive primary health care regardless of ability to pay to clients living in Williamsburg, James City County, and York County.
Today with a staff of 40 that operates with a nurse practitioner model, Olde Towne treats just under 1,500 patients a month and has added dental and optical to its offerings. They offer a wide range of services, including adult primary care integrated with behavioral health in cooperation with Bacon Street Youth and Family Counseling; women’s health services, including prenatal care, maternity, and OB/GYN care; pediatric care; a full-service dental practice, and specialty care including nephrology, pulmonology, sports medicine, an immunization clinic, and medication access program.
“Olde Towne is not a free and charitable clinic, although we do have a motto of never turning anyone away,” explains Aaron, who holds an MBA from VCU School of Business and a BA from Hampton University. “We want people to have a stake in their healthcare, but we understand that people sometimes fall on hard times and need additional resources. With that being the case, we accept Medicaid, Medicare, commercial insurance, and provide a sliding scale for those who are uninsured or underinsured.”
Aaron credits numerous relationships and partnerships that combine to help make Olde Towne successful, starting with Williamsburg Health Foundation, their largest grantor. “Williamsburg Health Foundation has been providing Olde Towne with significant unrestricted operating funds for the past 18 years. We partner with them for a lot of our chronic care initiatives, and they support us tremendously,” says Aaron.
The James City Lions Club sponsored the creation of an optometry suite in partnership with Dr. Pamela Lundberg, a Williamsburg optometrist who provides eye exams at Olde Towne one day a month. Lions Club volunteers help staff the suite. “If you have a minor prescription adjustment, in some instances, you can have your glasses made right here at Olde Towne,” says Aaron.
Olde Towne also embraces its relationships with colleges in the area. “We have a significant number of students who come from the College of William & Mary who provide assistance whether it’s translation for our Spanish-speaking population, which accounts for approximately one-third of the center’s clients, or those who are interested in future health care careers and want to gain experience working with our providers.”
“Also, Virginia Peninsula Community College has a dental hygiene program, and their students have mandatory training at Olde Towne in their curriculum to become future dental hygienists,” explains Aaron.
The organization is celebrating 31 years of providing healthcare to residents and has added dental care and optical to its range of services.
Olde Towne values its history with TowneBank, where they moved their banking relationship in 2019. “The TowneBank relationship has been very key and instrumental in supporting our initiatives, including our golf tournament, our golf ball drop, and our galas,” says Aaron. “Towne has assisted us with our endowment, as well as our relationship with James City County from an operational standpoint. Towne has given me the opportunity to speak before their board so that trustees and directors are more familiar with what Olde Towne does on a daily basis. As our financial institution, private banker Amanda Ulishney and Alexis Swann, president of Peninsula and Williamsburg, have really made it seamless for our relationship to thrive.”
Having taken the helm of Olde Towne three months into the pandemic when clinical staff were dressed in Personal Protective Equipment and treating patients out at the curb in front of the building, Aaron says the Olde Towne staff have been through a lot together. He especially has high praise for clinical director Kendra Robinson who has the most longevity, celebrating 23 years at Olde Towne. “Kendra has a wealth of knowledge. She has come up the ranks from an LPN to an RN to a diabetes educator to a nurse practitioner. She’s been there from the beginning and is very well respected throughout James City County. Her motto is ‘teamwork makes the dream work,’ and we really do believe in that.”
Aaron says Olde Towne is in the process of building up its volunteer team. “Our volunteers do everything from working in the lobby, greeting patients, helping them fill out paperwork to triaging them or answering phones. We also have outreach and some of our volunteers work with our marketing and development team to do health fairs and events. There’s never a shortage of things that need to be done at a nonprofit like Olde Towne.”
For more information or to volunteer, visit OldeTowneMedicalCenter.org.