Central Health opens the doors of its new flagship location this week at the site of the former Sears store in Hancock Center. The first phase of services for patients at the new medical center starts Friday.
The facility will house clinical space and administrative offices for Central Health, Travis County’s public hospital district that provides health care to low-income residents. Central Health’s insurance affiliate, Sendero Health Plans, and its clinical partner, CommUnityCare, will also share space in the building.
“I think this is really a remarkable model of providing one-stop — not shopping — but care,” Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea said at an opening celebration for Central Health Hancock last Friday. “It’s kind of fitting that it’s in a former department store where you could come and get everything.”
Lorianne Willett
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KUT News
Patients who visit Central Health’s new Hancock location will be able to pick up prescriptions at a pharmacy window on-site.
Central Health President and CEO Dr. Pat Lee described the new medical center as a place where patients can get a continuum of health needs met at once, rather than run into frustration and dead ends as they search for appointments, labs and pharmacy services at separate facilities.
“When care is fragmented like this, it creates delays, it creates confusion and it builds unnecessary barriers, especially for the patients who need that coordinated care the most,” Lee said. “We are building one integrated, connected system of care, where different parts of the health system are designed to work together and not separately.”
The building, which was a Sears store from 1963 until 2019, has been renovated to the tune of $150 million. The centerpiece of the 90,000-square-foot first floor is a large, airy atrium filled with warm brick tones and natural light. It’s surrounded by various clinical spaces, including a wing that serves as the new location for the David Powell Clinic, a longtime health center for HIV prevention and care run by CommUnityCare. The clinic’s original location is being displaced by the I-35 expansion project.
“As has been true for me in the 25 years that I’ve been a patient at David Powell, this will be a place where people will be heard and cared for and treated with dignity,” said Guy Swenson, a member of the CommUnityCare board of managers.
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
Central Health Hancock is also home to CommUnityCare’s David Powell Clinic, which offers HIV treatment and prevention.
The David Powell Clinic will be among the first resources available to patients at the Hancock Center facility. It opens Friday, along with on-site Quest Diagnostics lab services and a pharmacy.
Other services, including dental, primary and specialty care, are expected to become available with Central Health Hancock’s next phase in 2027.
The added space will help further Central Health’s ongoing strategic plan for closing gaps in the local health care system and improving access to health services for low-income residents. In the past year, Central Health reports launching more than 30 specialty and diagnostic services and overseeing more than 669,000 primary care visits.
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