James Austin Health Center

James Austin Health Center in Eden, NC is a primary care and behavioral health medical home serving residents of Rockingham County, North Carolina and surrounding areas.

JAHC is dedicated to providing excellent, patient-centered healthcare to everyone for healthy people and a healthy community. We do this while maintaining our values of compassion, commitment, integrity, and excellence.

James Austin Health Center is named after Dr. James Austin.

Dr. Jim Austin was a jack of all trades. Yes, he could regulate blood pressures, treat illnesses and manage diabetes, but he also could fix his car, inoculate a horse, repair appliances, and even sew a Halloween costume or two.

Whatever the problem, he had relentless focus, especially when it came to nailing down a diagnoses that alluded him. Many times that translated into hours on the phone trying to connect with the right person.

As a teenager growing up in the suburbs of Detroit, it was his tinkering and innate mechanical abilities that led him to the Engineering School at the University of Michigan. But, his course would change when he met a young nursing student. Her textbooks were much more intriguing, and soon Dr. Austin decided the human body was the most fascinating machine he’d come across.

He dropped his engineering major and switched paths to pre-med. As for that nursing student who set him on this path, they were married in 1974.

Fast-forwarding a few years after finishing his residency at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he would end up moving his wife, Lisa, and daughter, Stephanie, to Eden, NC.

Dr. Austin became well known and loved in the community for treating people, not just illnesses. Dr. Austin found the community climate warm and inviting which became the ideal place to get to know many of his patients both inside and outside of the center.

Dr. Austin’s days may have been long, but spending quality time with each patient was a priority for him. Rarely did someone leave his office without a sketch he’d drawn to help them understand their ailment. In return for his warm, caring, inviting nature, patients would often share vegetables from their gardens, goodies from their kitchens, and even brought him trinkets from their vacations. He seemed to be at the top of many minds in the community and he was humbled by the generosity bestowed upon him daily.

In 2008, Dr. Austin’s unexpected death sent shock waves through the community. Only 56 years old, he left behind his wife and three daughters, Stephanie, Anna, and Sophie. He was deeply mourned by his family, friends, patients, and colleagues. Dr. Austin was an inspiration to many, helping them reach for bolder goals, whether in medicine, engineering, or some other field.

His legacy lives on in the values we hold close as stewards to the community and servants to those in need of affordable, quality healthcare.