So Much More than Women’s Healthcare
Comprehensive care, lasting relationships, and support through every stage of life.
Women spend much of their lives caring for others. They raise children, support aging parents, manage households, work, and help keep their families healthy. Too often, their own healthcare needs fall to the bottom of the list.
At Blue Ridge Health, helping women prioritize their health is part of a larger commitment to accessible, comprehensive care at every stage of life.
For Dr. Audrey Faber, a family medicine physician at Blue Ridge Health – Polk, that commitment is especially meaningful.
“I think that is what brings me a lot of joy, specifically in women’s health, because I get to take care of people who are so focused on taking care of others,” she said.
Her colleague, Dr. Russell Pace, who practices at BRH’s Polk and Justice Street locations, shares that perspective.
“We take care of the whole patient,” Pace explained. “We take care of not only the whole patient, but the whole patient’s family, frequently.”
Care for Every Stage of Life
Women’s healthcare involves far more than reproductive health. BRH provides services ranging from wellness visits, breast and cervical cancer screenings, contraception and family planning to prenatal and postpartum care, chronic disease management and behavioral health support.
For women planning families, care can extend from pregnancy through delivery at partnering hospitals, postpartum visits and pediatric care for their children.
“I get to do the whole thing from the prenatal to the pediatric care,” Faber said, describing the relationships she builds with mothers and their growing families.
Those relationships can make an enormous difference.
For Katie Tipton, who was expecting her first son, previous healthcare experiences had left her feeling rushed and apprehensive about medical appointments. That changed when she met Dr. Valeria Glanton, a family medicine physician at Blue Ridge Health – Buncombe.
“The very first appointment, I roll in, meet Dr. Glanton, and like I said, we just absolutely clicked,” Katie recalled.
Glanton describes herself as a “country doctor,” someone who wants to know her patients, understand their lives and build relationships that allow them to talk openly about their concerns.
For Katie, that approach transformed what it meant to visit her doctor.
“I didn’t know that was a possibility of being excited to like go to see your doctor,” she said.
Bringing Care Closer to Home
In rural Western North Carolina, access to women’s healthcare can be complicated by distance, transportation, work schedules and childcare responsibilities.
Faber has seen those barriers firsthand in Polk County, where some women referred elsewhere for follow-up cervical cancer evaluations never completed their appointments because traveling was too difficult.
When those services became available locally through BRH, patients were able to receive the care they needed. BRH has also arranged mobile mammography services and expanded access to cervical cancer screening at its Polk location.
More Than Individual Services
BRH’s integrated approach recognizes that women’s health needs rarely fit neatly into separate appointments. Primary care can be connected with behavioral health, pharmacy, nutrition support and specialty care coordination, depending on the location and the patient’s needs.
“Some women feel like they have to be spread out between going to see a primary care for this issue, going to see an OBGYN for this other issue, and it can be a relief for them to be able to talk about all of those things in one visit,” Faber said.
Whether a woman is planning a pregnancy, managing a chronic condition or navigating menopause, BRH’s goal is to make comprehensive healthcare more accessible while building relationships that last.
Because caring for women means caring for the families and communities that depend on them.