Health Equity in Action: Building Pathways to Care and Community Well-Being

After attending a Cone Health cooking class at The Vance H. Chavis Branch Library, Antoinette Haynes left with a few meal ideas and an even more important recipe for well-being: a primary care provider. 

Organizers connected Haynes, 62, with the Virtual Primary Care Clinic at Hampton Homes — a new initiative of Cone Health’s Center for Health Equity. Today, Haynes sees Sarah Parker, a nurse practitioner at the clinic, for needed health screenings and follow-up care.  

“It’d been a long time since I had a primary care provider,” Haynes says. “I think it’s very important to have that, and they seem to really care about my health.” 

In addition to providing on-demand care, the clinic team partners with the Center’s community health workers to refer patients for help with issues that may affect their health, such as access to transportation, education, job opportunities, food and physical activity.  

It’s just one part of Cone Health’s “CATCH 5 in 5” effort, which aims to improve life expectancy disparities by five years through focused prevention, treatment and community interventions. The program targets five key drivers of mortality: cardiometabolic conditions, cancer, homicide, infant mortality and opioid overdoses. This year, the efforts were recognized with the Bernard J. Tyson Award for Pursuit of Healthcare Equity from The Joint Commission and Kaiser Permanente.  

Also in 2025, the Center for Health Equity spearheaded three “Building a Better You” health events in Guilford, Alamance and Rockingham counties. Since its start, efforts like these have connected 1,200 people like Haynes with health care providers.