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| "Motivated to live our Christian principles, the mission of the North Side Christian Health Center is to provide whole-person primary health care to underserved persons on the Northside and surrounding neighborhoods. We envision a community where people of all backgrounds and affiliations are actively engaged in maintaining healthy lifestyles and preventing chronic disease, and where people take specific steps on their own behalf to ensure good health and a long life." |
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| Former North Side Christian Health Center on East Ohio Street in Pittsburgh's Historic Deutschtown. From 1993 to Aug. 2008. Come see us at our new location. |
| Northview Heights Health Center on Mt. Pleasant Road opened January 2008 |
Pittsburgh's Northside has lagged behind the rest of the city and the county in health and education.
Economic factors inhibit members of the target population from seeking the care they need.
Unemployment sits at over 10.2% for the entire Northside and as high as 31.6% in the Northview Heights
public housing complex. Of the neighborhood's 48,000 residents, 21,000 live below 200% poverty, and a
majority of these residents are African-American. Rates of diabetes, dental disease, infant mortality, and
teen pregnancy are 11%, 30%, 200% and 260% higher than the rest of the county, respectively.
High unemployment leads to gaps in healthcare insurance. Indeed, 5,700 individuals in the service area
have no insurance at all. Only 28% hold private insurance, indicating that the jobs that are available to
area residents have few or no benefits. Many Northside residents lack the means to find better jobs:
nearly one-quarter of the entire Northside over age 25 lacks a high school education. Low educational
attainment and poor economic indicators almost always guarantee dismal health.
NSCHC is working to change things by filling in the healthcare gap - and we are not working alone.
Pittsburgh is a nationally recognized leader in healthcare, but the region's health boom has also starkly
illuminated health disparities. Local foundations and corporations have recognized that in order to deem
our city's health infrastructure truly excellent, we must not neglect the underserved. In the past year, our
projects for capital/relocation, operation of the Northview Heights pubic housing health center, and
establishment of our first pediatric program were the grateful beneficiaries of a number of committed
supporters. Our community partnerships have allowed for unexpected benefits for our patients, such as
input from the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh into an active play area in the waiting room on the
pediatric floor of our new building.
North Side Christian Health Center (NSCHC) was founded in 1993 by a group of doctors and
community leaders who had a vision to serve the medically uninsured on the Northside with
comprehensive, faith-based primary and preventive health care that addresses the whole person: body,
mind and spirit. In 2002 we became part of the national movement of federally qualified community health
centers as a Look-Alike. Community health centers are designated to meet our most pressing problems of
access to and availability of quality affordable health care to the underserved. For 15 years, we have
operated from a small storefront building on East Ohio Street. In 2004, realizing that the needs of
patients and the community had outgrown our storefront, NSCHC formed an Expansion Committee and
identified a superb relocation site, 816 Middle Street, a former medical office building just two blocks
around the corner from the East Ohio location. We acquired the building on June 6, 2007, and completed
move-in August 2008. The new building triples our available clinical space and adds a Child and Family
Health Center, enhancing our ability to treat patients according to our central mission.
In January 2008, after being selected by the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh, NSCHC assumed
operations of the Northview Heights Public Housing Health Center. We are the only health center
located within the public housing system in Pittsburgh, and we provide primary care for the 2600 residents
of Northview Heights, the city's largest public housing complex. Patients receive treatment at either of our
sites without regard to ability to pay via a sliding-fee scale for patients without adequate insurance
coverage.
community leaders who had a vision to serve the medically uninsured on the Northside with
comprehensive, faith-based primary and preventive health care that addresses the whole person: body,
mind and spirit. In 2002 we became part of the national movement of federally qualified community health
centers as a Look-Alike. Community health centers are designated to meet our most pressing problems of
access to and availability of quality affordable health care to the underserved. For 15 years, we have
operated from a small storefront building on East Ohio Street. In 2004, realizing that the needs of
patients and the community had outgrown our storefront, NSCHC formed an Expansion Committee and
identified a superb relocation site, 816 Middle Street, a former medical office building just two blocks
around the corner from the East Ohio location. We acquired the building on June 6, 2007, and completed
move-in August 2008. The new building triples our available clinical space and adds a Child and Family
Health Center, enhancing our ability to treat patients according to our central mission.
In January 2008, after being selected by the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh, NSCHC assumed
operations of the Northview Heights Public Housing Health Center. We are the only health center
located within the public housing system in Pittsburgh, and we provide primary care for the 2600 residents
of Northview Heights, the city's largest public housing complex. Patients receive treatment at either of our
sites without regard to ability to pay via a sliding-fee scale for patients without adequate insurance
coverage.
| All rights reserved, June 2008. Site design by Michael Genuardi and Eric Ojerholm. |
History
The Northside