STAT Wellness opens in South End with a medical practice and a gym under one roof

An Atlanta company that puts a medical practice, physical therapy and a coached strength gym in the same building is now open in South End. STAT Wellness has opened the company’s first Charlotte location at Middblock South End, 2401 Distribution St., Suite 100. The company’s Charlotte page lists that address and carries a “now open in South End” banner. Axios Charlotte reported on October 26 that STAT is now open.

STAT hasn’t published an exact first day. In June, WhatNow Charlotte, citing the Charlotte Business Journal, reported that the company planned to open in August in about 5,000 square feet at Middblock. Federal records show the Charlotte practice, STAT Wellness Charlotte PLLC, received a national provider identifier on July 20.

STAT Wellness Charlotte at a glance

The basics, from the company’s website:

• The address is 2401 Distribution St., Suite 100, Charlotte, NC 28203, at Middblock South End.
• Hours are 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday, and the location is closed Sunday.
• The phone number is 704-251-2230.
• Parking is on site, and the company describes the location as a few blocks off the Rail Trail.
• No referral or diagnosis is needed, and STAT offers a free 15-minute call to see whether the services fit.

How the model works

Founder and CEO Kristin Oja is a nurse practitioner who holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice, according to STAT’s team page and the federal provider registry. She worked in an emergency department before starting the company, and the name comes from the ER term, according to STAT, which says the letters stand for Strength to Achieve Total Wellness. STAT began as a bootcamp in a school parking lot in 2014 and opened the company’s first location in West Midtown Atlanta, which STAT dates to January 2019, with a gym on one side and exam rooms on the other, the company says.

In 2019, Rough Draft Atlanta described Oja teaching a 5:15 a.m. class before office hours at that first studio. “Medicine and movement are one, so it needs to be open and connected,” she said then.

The Charlotte space follows the same idea, with exam rooms on one side, a strength training floor in the middle and treatment suites for physical therapy and bodywork on the other, according to the company’s Charlotte page.

Services that can be booked in Charlotte, as STAT lists them:

• Functional medicine visits with a nurse practitioner, starting with a 60-minute first visit, a body composition scan and a personalized lab panel.
• One-on-one physical therapy for orthopedic, pelvic floor and performance needs, with dry needling and cupping included as needed.
• Coached group fitness most days of the week, plus personal and small group training.
• Dietitian visits and health coaching.
• IV drips and injections, plus body composition scans.

STAT says the company’s providers can diagnose disease, treat symptoms and prescribe medication, but recommends that patients keep a primary care provider for annual physicals, vaccinations, urgent on-call needs and a hospital affiliation. STAT also says the practice is not concierge medicine, with no retainer and no 24-hour doctor line. Labs run through LabCorp, and most results come back in one to two weeks, according to the company.

Prices and memberships

Every service can be booked individually. The Medicine and Medicine plus Strength memberships carry an annual commitment, and Strength Training also comes in a three-month plan. Prices from STAT’s website:

• The Medicine membership is $185 a month, or $1,998 a year paid up front, and includes four follow-up visits a year and unlimited dietitian and health coaching visits.
• Medicine plus Strength is $295 a month and adds group classes, open gym time and programming based on the patient’s labs.
• Strength Training alone is $150 a month on a 12-month plan or $189 a month on a three-month plan.
• A la carte, a first medical visit is $389, a 60-minute physical therapy visit is $229 and a single group class is $35.
• New clients can take their first group class free or buy a one-week unlimited class pass for $25.

Medical visits are cash pay and are not billed to insurance, though HSA and FSA cards work, according to the company’s FAQ. Lab work through LabCorp is billed to insurance when possible, so the lab may bill a patient or plan separately. Supplements are ordered through an outside platform and are not part of any membership.

Who works there

Nurse practitioner Dawn Allen, who holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice and is a board-certified family nurse practitioner, is the nurse practitioner on the Charlotte team, according to her STAT bio, and the federal provider registry lists her North Carolina license at the Distribution Street address. The rest of the Charlotte team on STAT’s page includes physical therapist Natalie Brazil, registered nurse Olivia Packard, registered dietitian Grace Burton, office manager Jodie Haney and health coaches Dawn Strength and Amanda Garvey.

Company leadership includes chief operating officer Cam Oja, Kristin Oja’s husband, and medical director Jeff Thompson, a physician who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation, according to the company.

Why South End

Oja told WhatNow in June that STAT picked South End for its walkability, energy and sense of community, and that every STAT location is designed to look and feel different. “Our goal is to fit into the community we are opening in,” she said.

Middblock South End is three older buildings, at 2401 Distribution St. and 2322 and 2406 Dunavant St., reworked for offices and shops and marketed under the tagline “mingle. munch. meet.” The 2401 Distribution building covers about 25,248 square feet, according to an August leasing brochure on Middblock’s website, which still showed the building’s four other suites, about 5,000 square feet each, as available.

A growing company

STAT now lists eight locations: five in metro Atlanta, plus Charleston, Nashville and Charlotte, according to the company’s FAQ. In June, WhatNow, citing the Business Journal, called Charlotte the company’s seventh brick-and-mortar location. STAT’s site now also lists a Sandy Springs, Ga., location, the former Well Equipt physical therapy practice. The company says STAT owns and builds every location and does not franchise, so a patient’s chart works the same way in each city. STAT reports more than 21,000 clients since 2019 and more than 90 team members, figures published on the company’s website.

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