Chris Richardson, COO of AxessPointe Community Health Center, spoke with residents and officials about a proposed new health center in North Hill (Photo: Chris Miller).
AxessPointe plans to open community health center here in 2017
— More than half of North Hill residents live below 100 percent of the federal poverty level, which makes this neighborhood an ideal candidate for a new integrated community health center.
“Seventeen percent of people in this neighborhood have no access to health care,” said Chris Richardson, COO of AxessPointe Community Health Center, which plans to open a new center in North Hill in January of 2017. He said that 31 percent of North Hill residents did not have a dental visit within the last year.
Helping with health care enrollment is one of many benefits to residents delivered by AxessPointe, said Richardson, who addressed residents and city and county leaders at the Patterson Park Community Center.
“Everyone in this country should have easy access to health care,” he added.
AxessPointe, which operates five Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) in the Akron area, offers an array of services, including primary medical, dental and behavioral health care, along with a 340B pharmacy, a program that offers medication at reduced rates. The agency also delivers medication by mail for those who cannot afford transportation or are unable to travel to the health center. Medication purchased through AxessPointe is usually anywhere from 50 to 80 percent cheaper for clients.
The organization’s mission is to provide quality, affordable and compassionate health care for all communities.
At the North Hill meeting, local obstacles to health care were discussed, including transportation, cost of care and language barriers, especially prevalent among the neighborhood’s predominant refugee and immigrant population.
Summit County Common Pleas Judge Tom Teodosio said education will be a critical component to this new proposed health center, especially as it pertains to the heroin drug epidemic. “The key is educating young people early to try to avoid them falling into that trap,” he said.
A location for the facility is yet to be selected, according to AxessPointe.
AxessPointe currently has health centers in Akron, Barberton and Kent. For info, visit http://axesspointe.org/.
