Mile Square Health Center: comprehensive care, one location

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel talks with Robert Winn, associate vice president for community-based practice, during a visit to the new Mile Square Health Center Jan. 8. Photo: Hossein Fatemi/UI Health

A new home for UIC’s Mile Square Health Center opened its doors Jan. 6 at Roosevelt Road and Wood Street near the UI Hospital.

The five-story facility, which expects 76,000 patient visits this year, is the first federally qualified health center in the Chicago area to offer urgent care and specialty care, including mammography services.

“UI Health is committed to reducing health disparities in under-served populations,” said Jerry Bauman, interim vice president of health affairs at UI Health and dean of the College of Pharmacy.

“We are very proud to be able to offer an expanded range of services at our newest center, which very much reflects our core mission to provide quality care for all patients.”

The new facility is headquarters for the Mile Square Health Centers, which includes 12 sites in Chicago and Cicero.

“This newest Mile Square center represents a step forward in the evolution of federally qualified health centers,” said Robert Winn, associate vice president for community-based practice at UI Health.

About 200,000 residents in the new center’s service area will become eligible for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Winn expects the center will see many of these patients, who may have put off seeing a doctor for lack of insurance.

In addition to primary care, preventive care, obstetrics and gynecology physicians and pediatricians, patients can see specialists in ophthalmology, psychiatry, otolaryngology, endocrinology, pulmonology and cardiology at the new center.

“Patients don’t have to make multiple appointments at different locations to get themselves taken care of,” said Winn. “You can see your primary care doctor, visit a specialist, and pick up your prescription — all in one place, in a single visit.”

The Urgent Care Center will open March 3 with hours from noon to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends and holidays.

The new building was funded in part by a $12 million competitive grant awarded to UIC for Mile Square  for the construction of new federally qualified health centers under the Affordable Care Act.

The facility was designed by Moody-Nolan Architects, the largest African-American architectural firm in the U.S. The green building meets LEED Silver standards for energy and water conservation.

sparmet@uic.edu