Over the years, the northeast corner of 38th Street and Arlington Avenue has brought little to the community.
The City of Value, which was once there, was closed a decade ago, leaving its shell-filled shell and parking lot full of holes. Two summers ago, a pop-up party gathered hundreds and a missing bullet killed a 16-year-old girl who was walking around.
But the new life will soon come to fruition. On Thursday, Eskenazi Health officials announced that they will build a new primary health care center on the site, which will be the largest in a dozen outpatient portfolios.
Opened in 2024, the new center is a major part of the $ 50 million investment in capital improvements that public hospitals will make in primary care.
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The new health center is the latest in a number of community-focused projects, including Cook Medical’s new manufacturing plant on 38th Street, a new local grocery store and, a few years in the future, IndyGor’s purple line.
“A lot is happening on the east side,” Mayor Joe Hogsett said at a ceremony to announce the new project on Thursday. “Today our city is more focused and invested in the health of our community, perhaps more than ever in the history of our city.”
The new health center will provide physical and mental health care for children and adults and will include a cafeteria and a teaching kitchen and community space.
With an area of 95,000 square meters, the new center will be significantly larger than any of Eskenazi’s other outpatient clinics and more than double the current largest site on West 38th Street. The design of the new campus includes outdoor spaces and walking trails to promote well-being and community rooms. An urban farm on the site will serve as a source of healthy food for patients and staff.
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The Marion County Department of Public Health, which reports to the Health and Hospitals Corporation as Scenario Health, will have a place there.
“This is the only health center,” said Dr. Virginia A. Caine, the department’s director and chief medical officer. “No one has a model for the integration of services offered, which you will see with this new Community Health Center.”
Community residents like Phyllis Durr-Stokes welcome the new neighborhood increase, which is expected to open in 2024.
In 1974, Durr-Stokes gave birth to his son at the General Hospital. The hospital was renamed Wishard a year later and was replaced by Eskenazi Hospital in 2011. Since 2007, Durr-Stokes has been receiving care at the Eskenazi Forest Manor Center.
In the months leading up to 2020, Durr-Stokes lost her aunt to Alzheimer’s and her boyfriend was diagnosed with stomach cancer a few weeks before she died. Upon learning that he was working as a caretaker for his two friends, Forest Manor staff called him to check on him and sent him food.
The gesture coincided with all his years of experience as a patient, Durr-Stokes, 63, said.
“There seems to be a completely different atmosphere when you enter: love, family, people helping you,” said Durr-Stokes, who lives a few blocks away. “They took care of me.”
Following the opening of the new center, Eskenazi will close the North Arlington and Forest Manor sites, said Dr. Dawn Haut, director of the primary care division at the Eskenazi Health Center. The new center will allow for 20% growth.
The building will have 72 examination rooms, 30 consultation rooms, a community center, a dental room with eight examination chairs, a set of optometry and an image set with X-rays, MRI, mammography and ultrasound machines.
Many post-pandemic health care systems have struggled to maintain staffing levels, but Haut said Eskenazi has had no problem hiring doctors so far. The health system is also working to encourage medical assistants and health technicians to be hired and promoted early in their careers. Eskenazi also tries to put workers in the areas of the communities where they live when possible.
The new center has far-reaching implications for the community, said Ashley Gurvitz, executive director and CEO of the Northeastern Union Alliance, which aims to improve the quality of life in the area.
“We are really pleased to know that Eskenazi is setting a bigger footprint in our east,” he said. “We now know that this space will be fair and will create better access to a healthier and happier life. It is one of the most important resources we have for the health of our community. ”
Contact Shari Rudavsky IndyStar journalist at [email protected] Follow me on Facebook and others Twitter: @srudavsky.