Virtua Health To Open 1st Primary Care Clinic Specifically Built For Members Of South Jersey's LGBTQ+ Community
MARLTON, N.J. (CBS) -- Virtua Health will open its first primary care clinic specifically built for members of South Jersey's LGBTQ+ community on Monday.
Virtua PRIDE Primary Care Clinic, located in Marlton, will do standard primary care practices, like yearly physicals, but they'll also specialize in medical topics like gender-affirming hormone therapy and HIV prevention.
Dr. Shanin Gross, who identifies as they/them, said the clinic will provide a safe space where people can meet with doctors and nurses who are also a part of the LGBTQ+ community.
"Knowing that you're going to see a provider who is part of the community, or can at least identify with the community, it helps you really feel that you're the norm and not the exception," Gross said. "When they walk in this space, they're going to feel that someone is there for them, on their side, understands where they have come from, and where they might want to go, and we'll be that partner in that journey."
Shane Lipscomb, a Virtua employee who identifies as he/him, plans to become a patient at the clinic because the doctors already have intimate knowledge of LGBTQ+ medical topics.
"I was on PrEP, [the HIV prevention drug], for a while, and I'm a big advocate of PrEP," Lipscomb said. "But when speaking to my physician at a regular family practice, it was conversations of, 'what is PrEP, and why would you need it, and how do I even go about prescribing it?'"
