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After years of planning, more than 70 of community requests, and over two years of construction. Hundreds celebrated inside of Southeast Austin's newest health care center.
"Whether you're a child, whether you're an adult, a woman with OB needs, or if you're sick, you can find (help) here," Isaac Pozos, senior practice administrator for Central Health, said.
Central Health's new Southeast Health and Wellness Center sits on the intersection of E. Oltorf and Montopolis and will serve the many needs of one of Austin's fastest growing areas.
"The Southeast location is a growing area. It's a high-need area as well." Pozos said. "It is one of the highest medicade service populations in Travis County. For us to be here is key to them."
The $27 million, 73,888 sq. ft. facility was designed to care for a large number of patient needs all in single location. It includes: A medical clinic, pharmacy, radiology, laboratory, educational garden, teaching kitchen with healthy cooking demonstrations, zumba classes, and dentist office. Which will not only help patients save time and money but also hassle .
"If you were a patient needing special services you would need to travel to a different location in Travis County. If you needed dental services you needed to travel to another location, if you just needed to pick up your medication you had to go to a different location. Imagine doing that on a bus, imagine the traffic in Austin. So in order to have this it is very important for our patients," Pozos said.
Construction on the facility was split into two phases which began in October of 2014. Phase two wrapped up earlier this month.
The center estimates they will get over 80 thousand patient visits just this year. With them all coming to one place, it will not only help those seeking treatment but also those giving it.
"What it does is it becomes efficient. It also becomes efficient for the health care organization. We're not wasting time with a patient’s healthcare if there is something that is emergent then we can deal with it. If it's not then we can schedule it. It's very convenient and it makes a lot of sense," Pozos said.
The center will be open Monday through Saturday from 7:30 A.M. to 8:00 P.M.