Health center on Southwest Side will feature first-of-its kind geriatric program in Illinois

Construction began Thursday on a pioneering geriatric health center on the Southwest Side.

The new facility from Esperanza Health Center is going up in Brighton Park alongside the group’s facility at 4700 S. California Ave. Construction is expected to take a year.

The center will host one of the state’s first Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly initiatives. Known as PACE, the federal program is designed to help seniors stay in their homes longer.

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The program will operate on the first floor. Next to its standard examining rooms, there will be a cafe and areas for activities such as music, arts and crafts and yoga.

“The idea is not to have patients come in just when they need a doctor’s appointment but spend a few days there every week, building relationships,” said Heidi Ortolaza-Alvear, vice president of strategy and business development for Esperanza.

The program is open to seniors who are eligible for Medicare and Medicaid and also qualify for nursing home care. They also must still be able to live safely at home. Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Illinois’ participation in the program in August.

The second floor will house an expanded family medicine program. It will have room for 20 doctors doing their residency in family medicine, up from six in the existing facility.

The facility aims to become a place for the whole community to gather, from seniors and family medicine patients to high schoolers from the nearby Mansueto charter school.

Michael Loria is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South and West sides.