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WaHi Health Clinic Relocates to 5K-Square-Foot Site to Serve More Patients

By Lindsay Armstrong | September 19, 2014 3:48pm | Updated on September 22, 2014 8:47am
 The Community League Health Center moved into a 5,500-square-foot space on 157th Street.
Community League Health Center
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WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — A nonprofit health care center that serves lower Washington Heights has moved into a larger space that will allow it to provide additional services and more than double its current patient load.

Community Healthcare Network, which provides community-based health care in underserved communities throughout the city, moved from its longtime home on 159th Street near Amsterdam Avenue into a 5,500-square-foot facility at 511 W. 157th St. that opened Thursday. The larger space has allowed the organization to increase its staff and more than double its number of exam rooms.

“For over 37 years, CHN has been dedicated to providing quality healthcare services to the Washington Heights community,” said the center's acting president and CEO, Dr. Matthew Weissman, in a statement. “We are so pleased to now be able to help even more patients in our new, larger home.”

The center has added a full-time pediatrician and a second nurse practitioner to the staff, and is also looking to add a second primary care doctor.

The new space allows for more specialized services, including a podiatrist, OB/GYN and a specialist in infectious disease who will all be on hand to see patients once a week. The old office could only host specialists periodically due to space constraints.

Last year at the old site, the center served about 200 prenatal patients, 300 pediatric patients, 2,500 patients for HIV testing, and 2,000 patients for family planning and adult medicine, the company said. Now, the center hope to drastically increase those numbers.

“We will hopefully more than double the number of patients we see,” said Jonathan Santos-Ramos, the center's director. “We’re hoping to increase the pediatric service even more than that.”

The new building is also occupied by the Community League of the Heights and Community Health Academy of the Heights, a public school with an emphasis on health studies. Santos-Ramos said the center is working to develop a partnership with the school.

“It will be a longer process because it involves curriculum development and approval,” he said. “We have talked to the principal about doing workshops for the students upstairs as well as having the students come down to observe or possibly volunteer in the center.”

The new center is located at 511 West 157th Street near Amsterdam Avenue and is open six days a week. Their number is 212-781-7979.