بواسطة Bob Sandrick, thelandcle.org

The health care provider is expanding into a bigger location to provide increased services to residents on Cleveland’s west side.

An independent provider of affordable healthcare with seven locations on Cleveland’s west side is relocating one of its clinics to a new and bigger space on Lorain Avenue at West 130th Street.

Neighborhood Family Practice will move its 5,000-square-foot health center at Lorain and West 117th Street about a half mile west to a former CVS Pharmacy building, which measures more than 10,000 square feet.

Recently, Neighborhood Family Practice received a $500,000 loan from the City of Cleveland to help pay for the estimated $2.8 million renovation project. The money is coming from the federal Urban Development Action Grant Program, which, according to the Urban Development Action Grant Program, aims to help physically and economically distressed communities.

“This is a great reuse of a former CVS,” said Cleveland Councilman Brian Kazy, whose Ward 16 contains the proposed new clinic. “It will make it easier for neighborhood residents to have access to healthcare. It’s good for the community but also the city in general.”

Domonic Hopson, president and CEO of Neighborhood Family Practice, said the larger space is needed because the Lorain-West 117th clinic, for several years, has been too small to handle the patient load.

“We wanted to have a larger space to provide more types of care but also be accessible for the patients who rely on us, because many of them walk to the existing clinic,” Hopson said. “This new location was a way to accomplish both of those things.”

Like the current location, the new Lorain-West 130th center will offer expanded primary care and behavioral health care by hiring additional doctors, counselors and therapists.

The new health center, unlike the one it’s replacing, will also include a drive-through pharmacy, the third pharmacy in the Neighborhood Family Practice chain. The pharmacy is especially important here because, in addition to the CVS, a Walgreens and a Rite Aid recently closed in the Lorain-West 130th neighborhood.

Jason Hughes, superintendent and general foreman at Next Generation Construction in Cleveland, is overseeing the renovation of a former CVS Pharmacy into a new Neighborhood Family Practice health center. [Photo by Bob Sandrick]

In addition, the new location will feature a larger dental space than the existing clinic. At the current site, some dental patients have been placed on a waiting list or referred to other practices.

“That’s a key component for us because many times people overlook the importance of oral health and the impact that dental care has on a person’s physical, mental and overall self-esteem,” Hopson said.

Construction in the CVS building started in August and the new clinic is scheduled to open in March.

Filling a need

Neighborhood Family Practice was established in 1980 to fill a health care gap on Cleveland’s west side. Such community-based providers are still needed today.

Last year, the National Association of Community Health Centers reported that more than 100 million Americans experience barriers to primary health care. Further, the estimated number of Americans at risk of not obtaining access to care due to a lack of medical centers in their neighborhoods has nearly doubled since 2014.

Meanwhile, the American Heart Association has stated that people living in areas without health care centers face a higher risk of chronic diseases, while those living in neighborhoods with health services tend to be healthier, and tend to take part in healthier activities.

That’s why Neighborhood Family Practice, in addition to its Lorain-West 117th center, has clinics on Franklin Boulevard in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood, Puritas Avenue near West 150th Street, Professor Avenue in Tremont and Madison Avenue in Lakewood, plus two clinics on Ridge Road near Dennison Avenue.

“These areas don’t get a lot of attention, especially compared to other areas of Cleveland that have a high need from a health and equity perspective,” Hopson said. “But when you look deeper into the data, there is a significant amount of unmet needs in the areas we serve, so serving and shoring up these neighborhoods is key to us.”

Neighborhood Family Practice sees more than 22,000 patients from every ward in Cleveland and charges them based on their ability to pay. Those with income at or below 100 percent of the poverty rate pay a nominal fee, while those earning between 100 percent and 400 percent of the poverty level are charged on a sliding scale.

However, Neighborhood Family Practice patients aren’t just from the neighborhoods. They come from all over Cuyahoga County and they’re not necessarily struggling financially.

“Over 25 percent of our patients have private or commercial insurance,” Hopson said. “That speaks to people recognizing that although historically we are known as an organization that was created to provide care to Medicaid and uninsured patients, we are also preferred by all people of all incomes.”

Neighborhood Family Practice is a federally qualified health center, meaning that it’s held to vigorous standards and overseen by a board of trustees. That status also makes it available for funding from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, which supports lower-income people in underserved neighborhoods.

Also, the nonprofit North Coast Health Foundation, led by Hopson, raises funds for and awareness of Neighborhood Family Practice.

Spreading the word

Raising awareness has become a priority for Hopson and Neighborhood Family Practice.

“We believe we are one of the best kept secrets in town,” Hopson said. “When you ask people about Neighborhood Family Practice, they either know us and love us and have had great experiences with us or they’ve never heard of us. There’s rarely a middle ground.”

Neighborhood Family Practice believes it has plenty to publicize. Hopson himself was recognized as one of Crain’s Cleveland Business’s notable Black leaders of 2024, and he received the Black Professionals Association Charitable Foundation’s 40/40 Emerging Legends Award this year.

Dr. Nancy Li at Neighborhood Family Practice was named one of Cleveland Magazine’s top doctors of 2024 and Elizabeth Hill, in behavioral health, was recognized as a top nurse by The Plain Dealer.

Suzanne Naftanel, Behavioral Health Linkage Coordinator at Neighborhood Family Practice, won the Community Choice Award from Partnership for Good Health Cleveland for her work in the community. Terrence Byrne, chief operating officer with the organization, was named one of Crain’s notable leaders in healthcare.

Neighborhood Family Practice is always looking to expand when the right opportunity arises. Hopson said the organization can take the lead in making Cleveland equitable.

“There is a commitment from our local government to address some of the longstanding social drivers of health, like housing, economic mobility of residents, transportation and education,” Hopson said. “But our position at Neighborhood Family Practice is that many of those focus areas are going to be long-term fixes. You can’t develop tens of thousands of new units of quality affordable housing in a short time span. It takes years and sometimes decades.”

Conversely, investment in high-quality primary care and preventative services can happen more quickly and can lift entire neighborhoods, Hopson said.

“We believe that we will be a key foundation to moving some of our communities forward, and we believe we are one of the leaders in that space, especially for people navigating poverty in some of our underserved communities,” Hopson said.