The 26,000-square-foot Bronzeville Health Center, an expansion of Provident Hospital, will offer number one physical care to adults and youth, as well as physical treatment services.
Abundant
Cook County Health plans to open a new outpatient physical care center early next year in the Bronzeville community near the former Michael Reese Hospital, officials said Wednesday.
Bronzeville Health Center, located at 467 E. 31st St. , will provide family medicine, mental health care and rehabilitation services.
“This is an especially poignant moment: we are here on 31st Street, in the shadow of the former Michael Reese Hospital campus, to announce a new investment in the well-being of the residents of Chicago’s South Island,” said Toni Preckwinkle, president of Cook County Council. Board of Directors. “she said at a news conference on Wednesday.
Cook County Health and the Cook County Office of Asset Management will invest $10 million in the new 26,000-square-foot facility, Preckwinkle said. Once completed, the center will have exam rooms and a gym for treatment services.
The county projects it will serve 85,000 patients in its first year.
Preckwinkle said the new fitness center would address “a deeply troubling disparity,” mentioning a 2019 study that found a 30-year life expectancy gap between the white citizens of Streeterville and the black citizens of Englewood.
“The fitness center promises to only satisfy the community’s rapid fitness desires, but it will also drive long-term innovations in fitness outcomes on Chicago’s South Side,” Preckwinkle said.
Michael Reese Hospital closed in 2008, leaving a void in fitness in the South Side community. Cook County Commissioner Bill Lowry said the situation worsened with the closure of six city-run intellectual fitness centers in 2012.
“Like fitness care, intellectual and behavioral fitness care is a right and not a privilege,” Lowry said. “We know that remedy leads to violence prevention, protection and a healthy lifestyle. “
In addition to intellectual fitness care, Bronzeville Health Center will provide premier youth and adult care, chronic disease management, pregnancy care, long-term physical treatment, occupational treatment and speech treatment services.
It is an extension of Provident Hospital, the nation’s first African-American-owned and operated hospital.
Cook County Health has invested more than $9 million in Provident Hospital over the past several years to expand clinical facilities and improve facilities, said Dr. Erik Mikaitis, interim CEO of Cook County Health.
The Bronzeville Health Center will be housed in a former Reese medical building of modernist design. Construction paintings are being carried out inside and the government hopes to be completed by early 2025.
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