MetroHealth and Urban Community School Partner to Improve Access to Care, Build a Healthier Community
CLEVELAND – The MetroHealth System will begin seeing patients Monday, June 1, at its new Ohio City Health Center in the Cletus Jeckering Family Health Center at Urban Community School (UCS).
The 32,000-square-foot facility, at the intersection of West 48th Street and Lorain Avenue, represents an innovative partnership between MetroHealth and UCS – two like-minded institutions committed to building a healthier and stronger community. The new health center will provide medical care to the school’s 600 students, as well their families and the entire community.
“Both MetroHealth and UCS understand that the best chance anyone has for long-term success is being surrounded by the services they need, services that are delivered by people who care,” said MetroHealth President & CEO Akram Boutros, MD, FACHE. “At UCS, it isn’t just about academics. And at MetroHealth, it isn’t just about medicine. UCS has always operated under the belief that a family’s income doesn’t have to define a child’s future. MetroHealth has always operated under the belief that a family’s income doesn’t have to define the health of that family. Both of us see a need and we fill it.”
“We see this partnership as the logical next step for our school. We believe deeply in our mission to serve the whole child and feel that UCS will be a better school as result of the services now available,” said Tom Gill, president of Urban Community School. “We also envision ourselves as a neighborhood anchor and knowing that the health center will improve the lives of so many around only enhances this vision.”
The Ohio City Health Center will offer primary care, pediatrics, behavioral health, obstetrics and gynecology services as well as MetroExpressCare to provide non-emergency room treatment for urgent health issues. This will be the fifth MetroExpressCare site, and the first on Cleveland’s Near West Side. Many of the health center’s providers are bilingual, including about 20 who speak Spanish.
The facility will also host services that address social determinants of health, those factors beyond medical care that research shows influence up to 80% of a person’s health. Those services include financial counseling, Food As Medicine, WIC, social work and civil legal help from the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cleveland.
The MetroHealth School Health Program will provide comprehensive primary and preventive care services and care coordination for UCS students. The team will also provide health education and wellness programming for students and their families as well as professional development for UCS staff. In addition to UCS, the MetroHealth School Health Program also partners with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, the Cleveland Heights-University Heights School District and Positive Education Program.
The new Ohio City Health Center is separate from the school and has its own, free, on-campus parking lot. There’s a Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority bus stop on Lorain Avenue, just steps from the front door.
For hours and a full list of providers, visit http://www.metrohealth.org/ohiocity.
Founded in 1837, MetroHealth is leading the way to a healthier you and a healthier community through service, teaching, discovery, and teamwork. Cuyahoga County’s public, safety-net hospital system, MetroHealth meets people where they are, providing care through five hospitals, four emergency departments and more than 20 health centers. Each day, our nearly 9,000 employees focus on providing our community with equitable healthcare — through patient-focused research, access to care, and support services — that seeks to eradicate health disparities rooted in systematic barriers. For more information, visit metrohealth.org.
