Cook County Health will open a new medical center early next year in the Bronzeville neighborhood near the site of the former Michael Reese Hospital, officials announced Wednesday.
The Bronzeville Health Center at 467 E 31st St. will offer family medicine, mental health care and rehabilitation services.
“This is a particularly poignant moment — we’re located here on 31st Street in the shadows of the old Michael Reese Hospital campus to announce a new investment in the health of residents on the South Side of Chicago,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said at a news conference Wednesday.
Cook County Health and the Cook County Bureau of Asset Management will invest $10 million in the new 26,000-square-foot facility, Preckwinkle said. Once completed, the center will have 44 exam rooms and a gym for therapy services.
The county predicts the center will see 85,000 patients in its first year.
Preckwinkle said the new health center will help address "a deeply troubling disparity head-on," citing a 2019 study that found a 30-year life expectancy gap between white residents in Streeterville and Black residents in Englewood.
“The health center holds the promise of not only addressing the immediate health needs of the community but also fostering long-term improvements in health outcomes on Chicago’s South Side,” Preckwinkle said.
Michael Reese Hospital closed in 2008, leaving a gap for health services in the South Side community. Cook County Commissioner Bill Lowry said the situation was worsened by the closure of six city-run mental health care facilities in 2012.
“Like physical health care, mental and behavioral health care is a right, not a privilege,” Lowry said. “We know that such treatment, it breeds violence prevention, it breeds safety and it breeds healthy living.”
In addition to mental health care, the Bronzeville Health Center will provide primary care for children and adults, management for chronic conditions, pregnancy care, extended physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy services.
The center is an extension of Provident Hospital, the first hospital in the nation owned and operated by African-Americans.
Cook County Health has invested more than $9 million in Provident Hospital over recent years to expand clinic services and modernize facilities, said Dr. Erik Mikaitis, interim CEO of Cook County Health.
The Bronzeville Health Center will be housed in a former Reese medical office building with a modernist design. Construction on the interior is underway and officials hope to be finished by early 2025.
