News and Events

Contact Mark Sanford
Director of Planning and Development
WORK (314) 367 -7848
FAX (314) 367-2985

For Immediate Release – News and Calendar Event

People’s Health Centers and Community Clergy Collaborate to Plan Health Care Action for the Uninsured

ST. LOUIS, March 11- People’s management team extends to the clergy a lunch invitation to participate in a Community Action Forum at 12:00 Noon located at People’s Health Centers’ 5701 Delmar Blvd. location. with their staff, in a community health fair and the grand opening of its new community health center, located at 11642 West Florissant Road. People’s Health Centers (PHC) as the sponsor, is long known as a provider of comprehensive health care services to individuals, families and the small business community in St. Louis.

The event will begin at People’s Health Centers new site located at 11642 West Florissant Road near the intersection of Highway 270 and West Florissant Road on Saturday June 1, at 10:00 a.m. with a live broadcast, free refreshments, free health assessments and screenings and a host of community events where the festivities and program will take place. Parking will be available on the parking lot at the new health center location.

PHC’s objective is to specifically serve North County residents from the following targeted zip codes: 63134, 63135, 63136, 63137, 63140, 63031, 63033, and 63042 among others. PHC has been fortunate to secure a medical facility previously operated by private Managed Care providers. An HMO Insurer built the property at 11642 West Florissant in 1985, and operated a medical center for private insurance clients there for several years. The insurer has since left the market and therefore PHC will step in to fill the void in primary care for North County residents. Last winter, PHC completed the acquisition and purchase of the facility and plans to operate a full-service primary care community based health center with service to all. This approach will build upon PHC’s prior successes and collaborations with North County community leadership involvement, Medicaid Managed Care Plan (MC+) affiliations and other grassroots partnerships.

People’s Health Centers grand opening of the north county site will permit the expansion of comprehensive community based primary health care services to the northward migration of 12,000 residents who left the city of St. Louis to relocate in the North County area. This migration represents a major shift from city neighborhoods to scattered north county municipalities of the larger St. Louis County. The address of PHC’s new expansion site is 11642 West Florissant, St. Louis, MO 63033. This central location was selected in order to meet and stabilize the growing unmet health care needs of that increasingly scattered population.

This facility’s scope will mirror the scope of services provided by PHC’s St. Louis City facility that serves a diverse population, consisting of a large number of minority residents, heads of households and working class families. The North St. Louis County facility will also serve both insured and underserved residents through the acceptance of a variety of health care plans. PHC will increase access to health services to help improve community health status and significantly improve disparities associated with such as: hypertension, poor dental access, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, asthma, WIC, STD’s, and mental health and substance abuse among others.

Through the support of the State and Local health departments, we will also provide a number of coordinated programs that have a positive impact on chronic disease intervention, health care resource identification, risk reduction, disease awareness, improvement in access to care, family planning services, lead poisoning prevention, improvement of immunization rates, breast and cervical cancer control, and helping to decrease teenage pregnancy through the Abstinence Only Education curriculum and programs geared toward preteens. Collaborative arrangements also exist with other agencies to increase community health awareness and health promotion opportunities specifically for North St. Louis County residents.

For the grand opening and health fair, PHC will be partnering with the four major plans of the Medicaid Managed Care Program that includes CC+Plus, Healthcare USA, Care Partners and Mercy Health Plans. In an effort to attract and provide access for families who have benefited from welfare to work programs, PHC continues to diversify with regard to contracts with commercial health care plans. Currently, we have physicians listed as providers with the following commercial HMO plans: Aetna/US Healthcare, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Missouri, CIGNA, Exclusive Choice, Group Health Plan, HealthLink, Mercy Health Plan, One Health Plan and United Healthcare. As more North County providers are recruited, a review of the mix of commercial plans offered will be undertaken.

Cover the Uninsured Week is sponsored by diverse national organizations that have worked for the past three years to educate the public and national leaders about the uninsured. The organizations include: The California Endowment, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, AFL-CIO, The Business Roundtable, Service Employees International Union, American Medical Association, American Nurses Association, Health Insurance Association of America, The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, Families USA, Healthcare Leadership Council, American Hospital Association, Federation of American Hospitals, Catholic Health Association of the United States, AARP, and United Way of America.

The building is a 12,995 square foot single story facility. The layout is comprised of 24 exam rooms, a large procedure room, WIC offices, eight offices for providers and enabling staff, 4 large waiting areas, a large x-ray suite to be newly equipped in year two, adequate laboratory space, pharmacy space, and a vision center that will be utilized as the dental suite. The center has sufficient space to accommodate the full range of program activities and services with a potential to expand to serve 20,000 users.

People's Health Centers provides services throughout the St. Louis Metropolitan Area. Corporate Offices are located in St. Louis City at 5701 Delmar Blvd; County offices are located in Maplewood at 7200 Manchester Road with satellite services based at 5331 Enright Avenue, 20 school locations, and mobile van destinations. This expansion North St. Louis County location is accessible to the targeted population with a public transportation stop one block away.

“This grand opening and health fair in North County is part of our strategic plan to further develop communities and improve access to services.” Said Mark Sanford, Director of Planning and Development for PHC. “Affordable healthcare for insured and underserved persons and families has become harder to find but this new site will help alleviate that hardship for many St. Louisans,” said Vickie Frager, Clinic Administrator and Nurse Practitioner. The development of the new North County location will accomplish several objectives for the residents of North St. Louis County and surrounding neighborhoods; 1) stabilize the community; 2) help bring access to care for families in the community; 3) provide health related jobs and community employment; 4) help spur additional development in the area; and 5) further People’s Health Centers mission, begun with its diverse health centers, to provide necessary health and supportive resources to the community.

This year marks thirty years of service to the community.