Eighty five years ago a group of women were concerned enough about their community that they started a health center that is going strong even today. Des Plaines Valley Health Center, which has been part of the Access Community Health Network since 2000, has and continues to serve the Summit/Argo/Bedford Park community with a mission that ensures comprehensive, affordable health care for all.
The health center was started in 1922 by the Argo/Summit Woman’s Club to help the underserved in the community, because at that time there was not a nearby hospital. To celebrate its longevity and 85-year anniversary, Des Plaines Valley Health Center will host a Patient Appreciation Week to be held October 22 – October 26. A public reception, with participation from local elected officials, will be held October 23, from 11 a.m. until Noon at 7450 W. 63rd St., Summit.
Louise Barone, past president of the Des Plaines Valley Health Center, waxed nostalgia about days gone by and the importance of the woman’s club. “When we were in business, we served the public who couldn’t afford to go to a doctor or hospital,” Barone said. “Decades ago, they would bring school children from classrooms into the health center, because there also was not a school nurse on hand.”
The health center was very family oriented, Barone added. “Any mothers to be, or new mothers, had a special clinic held just for their purposes. If you could afford to pay a quarter, you were charged; but you were still served, even if you couldn’t pay.”
Many of the students from the LaGrange Hospital Family Practice Residency Program were part of the medical staff at DPVHC, and Dr. Nasreen Ansari was one of those students. She is now the lead physician at DPVHC. She says the mission has always been one of helping community members toward healthy lives. “As a student I was assigned to the health center as part of community outreach,” Ansari said. “The health center has been able to meet the needs of the residents, with basic things such as treatment of blood pressure and diabetes, as well as family planning for women.”
Ansari, who first worked at the center in 1995, was there when ACCESS first took over ownership, and she says that the new change was a positive one. “We are now able to provide better treatment with ACCESS physicians, with more resources through grant money and with the assistance from Mount Sinai Hospital.”
The thread that runs throughout the comments from those affiliated with the health center is the same: free or affordable services that have always kept the welfare of the community in mind.
“It was good fortune not having to pay the doctors that came,” said Barone, who served with the DPVHC for nearly 25 years. “The center was supported by the County, and social service organizations such as the woman’s club and the Lions club. But at some point we did begin to charge patients a small amount of money.”
Barone still lives in the community and is happy to see the center receive recognition after all these years. “The mission of ACCESS and of DPVHC coincided,” said Barone. “With so many more people without insurance today, they need some way to get the services they need, and ACCESS has taken on that mission. Back during those times, people didn’t have health insurance; they were lucky if they had life insurance.”
Dee Lagioia served as manager of the DPVHC for 18 years, and now serves as Regional Operations Manager at ACCESS. She remembers the original location on South Archer Avenue. “One of the benefits with ACCESS coming onboard was that we moved to a larger facility,” Lagioia said. “We had extended hours and the first full time physician, who happened to be bilingual.”
With the presence of ACCESS, more patients were seen, the collaboration was better for the community and the commitment remained the same. “The mission then, and now, is to give high quality care to those in need,” Lagioia said. “The cost was always affordable, and no one was ever turned away.”
Elvira Rosales, 72, has worked at DPVHC for nearly 28 years, and she has seen many changes. “I started part time doing translations, filing, pulling charts and medical records,” Rosales said.
She also recalls the move to the bigger space on West 63rd Street. “When we moved over here, there was more work to do. We had more exam rooms and were seeing many more patients, and I became the receptionist and moved into full time work.”
The center served nearly 12,000 patients in fiscal year 2007; with more than 2,600 visits involving those for children.
For more information about Patient Appreciation Week, call 708.458.0757.
Access Community Health Network is comprised of 48 JCAHO accredited community health centers throughout Chicago and surrounding suburbs. It provides high quality, cost effective, safe, comprehensive primary and preventive health care to 200,000 individual patients annually, one-third of whom are uninsured. Visit the website at accesscommunityhealth.net.