The Eastern Iowa Health Center (EIHC) is in the midst of an ambitious expansion as the nonprofit aims to expand its services to more low-income, at-risk patients.
The organization is preparing to open new dental and urgent care clinics just months after opening a new women’s health center on the northeast side of Cedar Rapids, EIHC President and CEO Joe Lock told attendees at today’s Cedar Rapids Downtown Rotary meeting.
The Eastern Iowa Women’s Health Center opened at the start of January at the former UnityPoint Health – St. Luke’s Family Health Center at 4251 River Center Court NE. The new space doubled the number of women’s exam rooms available to staff, from 10 to 20, and will offer additional services under Title X, the federal grant program designated for family planning services, Mr. Lock said in an interview.
The new dental center, located next to the organization’s main clinic on Third Avenue SE, will open March 1, and offer dental services on a sliding scale. Â The nonprofit has already hired a staff of two dentists and four hygienists, Mr. Lock said, and is expecting to serve more than 22,000 patients in its first three years – an estimate he described as “conservative.”
The new urgent care clinic is set to open April 1, and will offer more immediate treatment options to Medicaid and uninsured patients in the community who have been unable to make traditional appointments, whether due to high demand or transportation difficulties. Mr. Lock noted that roughly one-third of EIHC miss their appointments due to transportation or other life issues.
“We still have 500-plus patients on a waiting list that we can’t access,” he said in response to questions about the need for an urgent care clinic.
The organization just last fall wrapped a $2 million renovation to its main clinic on Third Avenue, which converted office space into more clinic space, and increased the number of ADA-accessible exam rooms by 80 percent.
