New Center Improves Health Services for Residents

New Center Improves Health Services for Residents

A very important component to a thriving community is the ability to access quality health care and services. The lack of preventative care and accessibility to doctors and hospitals are silencing members of the black community. According to the American Heart Association, African Americans have higher incidents of death and sickness from preventable illnesses and diseases like diabetes and hypertension, all of which lead to heart disease, kidney failure and or stroke.

Traditionally underserved neighborhoods like Englewood are lacking quality hospitals and or health care clinics. In 2012, St. Bernard Hospital conducted a Community Health Needs Assessment that revealed a lack of services for the low income families in the community they serve. “People should be able to access to health care services close to home,” said Charles Holland, St. Bernard’s president and CEO.

St. Bernard Hospital has been serving this south side community for 111 years and has more than outgrown its current facility. The hospital for years has been overwhelmed by the number of emergency department calls it has had to take on. In 2013, the emergency department at St. Bernard received the highest number of Chicago Fire Department EMERGENCY Medical Service runs citywide. The ER at St. Bernard serves over 45,000 patients a year and the demand for emergency services continues to increase. “We constantly see patients use the emergency room as their primary care center,” said Diahann Sinclair, Vice President of Organizational & Community Development for St. Bernard. According to Sinclair, patients will wait until a minor health issue becomes a chronic or life threatening before seeking medical attention, but hospital officials are aiming to change that.

Sinclair boasts that this new facility is a much needed resource for the community because of the primary care clinic component that will help establish relationships betweenpatients and their doctors. St. Bernard’s Ambulatory Care Center will also be home to a new women’s wellness clinic where women can get quality prenatal care, annual gynecological exams and more. The health assessment study done in conjunction with affordable care act initiatives fueled Holland and his senior team to develop a strategy to improve community health outcomes. The result is this new three-story, 70,000 square-foot- building that is a one-stop health care facility. Other services provided include; orthopedics, diagnostic imaging and testing, outpatient pharmacy and specialty clinics like the Pediatric Asthma Clinic and the Diabetes Clinic. Holland says, “This new facility will not only help St. Bernard Hospital meet many current service demands, but provide the opportunity to bring additional services online in the future as we adapt to the quickly changing landscape of health care.”

The new care center will also have large conference rooms that will serve as their health education classrooms. “We are going to be offering health education classes for patients, things like CPR, “said Sinclair. The new St. Bernard Ambulatory Care Center located at 6307 S. Steward Ave will open on June 7, 2016.

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