Near North Health Opens The Family Care Center At Oakwood Shores
Near North Health Opens The Family Care Center At Oakwood Shores
By Tia Carol Jones
A federally qualified health center (FQHC) has decided to streamline its network of health centers in order to provide better health care service by consolidating its operation to three locations. Near North Health recently opened the Family Care Center at Oakwood Shores, located at 3753 S. Cottage Grove.
Near North Health was established in 1966 to provide access to health care to people on the South and West sides of the city of Chicago. Since it was established 59 years ago, Near North Health has provided care to more than 26,000 individuals and families each year.
Tristé Lieteau Smith, MD, JD, is Near North Health’s Chief Executive Officer. Smith said that the health center wanted to ensure that it had accessible quality health care for its patients, to do that, it was necessary that it consolidated its footprint to provide more access, including expanded hours. Initially, it was spread out between nine locations, which wasn’t sustainable given the health care workforce shortages.
The Family Care Center will provide internal medicine, women’s health and prenatal care, pediatric medicine, behavioral health therapy, counseling and integrated care, early intervention services, care coordination and case management, and health education and outreach. It will also have an on-site laboratory.
Smith said that while these services are important, Near North Health also understands the role the social determinants of health play with a person’s well-being. With that, the health center also provides access to other resources the patients might need, as a way to treat the whole person. Near North Health also has the Ryan White HIV program at the Family Care Center at Oakwood Shores.
The second phase of the clinic build-out will include dental, podiatry and ophthalmology. Smith said the build-out is anticipated to be completed in late spring and in the early summer of 2026. The goal is for the care center to continue to provide wraparound services, as it did at each one of its other locations. Near North Health provides its care on a sliding scale. Smith said that being able to provide health care to people who don’t have insurance is important because it means people can receive the care, they need without the financial barriers that might keep them from seeking care.
“Our goal is really making sure we help people on their health care journey at the prevention side and not just when they’ve suffered for a long time or are afraid, for whatever reason, to go into the doctor’s office,” Smith said. She added that Near North Health strives to provide health care that is culturally competent, very humble and shows respect to the patients.
Smith said the goal is for Near North health to provide quality care at the site that is inviting, with art on the walls. She said they want people to feel comfortable, because Near North Health believes that the patients deserve that level of care and compassion.
The other two locations are Winfield Moody Health Center, 1276 North Clybourn Ave., and North Kostner Health Center, 1520 North Kostner Ave. For more information about Near North Health, visit www.nearnorthhealth.org.
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