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MetroHealth Stations In South L.A. Could Be A Game Changer

Darian Nourian |
June 6, 2014 | 12:13 p.m. PDT

Contributor

MetroHealth Station - Jefferson Park is on target to open its doors later this summer. (Photo courtesy of BTL Health Inc.)
MetroHealth Station - Jefferson Park is on target to open its doors later this summer. (Photo courtesy of BTL Health Inc.)

Jefferson Park resident Stephanie Donaldson takes the Metro light-rail to work every day, waiting as much as 20 minutes at a time for a train that never seems to show up on time. 

Donaldson, 36, says that she doesn’t even have enough time to take care of her health because waiting for the Metro consumes so much of her day. 

“I would have to set aside an entire day or even two if I wanted to go out of my way to pay a visit to a clinic or a hospital to get checked out,” Donaldson said. “Since there aren’t many around here, it’s just a terrible inconvenience.”

But soon, Donaldson will have somewhere to eat up some of that idle time waiting for the Metro, while taking care of her health in the process. 

SEE ALSO: New South L.A. Hospital Faces Criticism Over Delays, Lack Of Services

Dr. Katherine Sullivan envisions a health care clinic at Donaldson’s stop and a multitude of others along Metro line stops throughout South Los Angeles, a magnet for poverty and people without health insurance.

Sullivan has renamed her health care clinics MetroHealth Stations, which are built around the idea of a doctor’s visit being just another stop in one’s day, promoting the notion of providing patients care in a quick and efficient manner. 

Sullivan, a health professional of over 30 years, is the founder and CEO of BTL Health Inc., which she founded to bring state-of-the-art health facilities along with some of the best inter-professional health teams to the medically underserved and economically distressed neighborhoods of Los Angeles. 

In the summer of 2014, Sullivan will be opening up her first MetroHealth Station in the neighborhood of Jefferson Park, which will aim to serve about 7,500 of the 180,000 Angelenos in the Crenshaw District. 

David Delgado, the community outreach coordinator of the MetroHealth Station, said that Jefferson Park was a popular choice for their first location because it is a great example of an urban neighborhood that is in need of health care without much access to it.

Within a one-mile radius, there are 90,000 residents and four McDonald’s fast food restaurants, but not one establishment specifically built to improve people’s health,” Sullivan said. “There is so much demand and need for health care in these low income, urban neighborhoods and we feel that everyone deserves good health.”

SEE ALSO: The Disparity Of Healthcare Services In L.A. County

The 2013 national poverty numbers and Los Angeles 2020 Commission Report confirm that the census tracts contiguous with Metro Health Station–Jefferson Park comprise an area moving toward innovation in health service delivery reform and economic development, BTL Health’s website states. 

Four of five adults in the area are eligible for Medi-Cal or federally subsidized health insurance and three in five adults between the ages of 18 and 64 are uninsured, according to the 2013 national poverty numbers. 

Donaldson, who is already covered under California’s Medi-Cal insurance program, said that she has been anticipating the opening of the station’s doors ever since she heard news of its coming back in January. 

“Good health care is something that our neighborhood hasn't had and I’m glad that these people are opening this facility to help us out so that we can finally get good care and in a convenient manner,” Donaldson said. 

Convenience is the primary goal for the MetroHealth Station and the Jefferson Park facility’s location keeps up with Sullivan’s vision. 

It is located on the northeast corner of Crenshaw and Jefferson Boulevard and is also just two blocks away from the nearest Metro stop at the intersection of Exposition and Crenshaw Boulevard.

The Jefferson Park station hopes to be the first of many stops for Sullivan and her colleagues. 

“It is my goal to have MetroHealth Stations next to every Metro light-rail station stop in South Los Angeles so that they can be easily accessible to the people in these neighborhoods who are seeking health care and don’t have as much access to it,” Sullivan said. 

This is indeed timely as Metro broke ground on the $2.06 billion Crenshaw/LAX light-rail line this past January, which will add a number of more stops along Crenshaw Boulevard by 2019, according to Metro authorities.

READ MORE: Crenshaw/LAX Project Takes the Next Step With First-of-Its-Kind Job Initiative

With her expedited health stations, Sullivan intends to get rid of the burden that many people feel when having to pay a visit to the doctor or the dentist. 

“When people think of going to the doctors, they think of it as this long arduous process of sitting in waiting rooms for hours and that’s exactly what we are looking to change using our extensive resources,” Sullivan said.

Quick waiting rooms and a newly innovated and efficient appointment system are other aspects that the station seeks to pride itself on once fully up and running, according to Delgado. 

Delgado, who graduated with a degree in biology from Stanford University, said that the MetroHealth Station hopes to have patients to be able to get a full bill of health and wellness within 90 minutes. 

“It’s our goal for patients to be able to get a full screening–mental, physical and dental, all within the amount of time, on average, it takes to watch a movie,” Delgado said. 

 David Delgado, MHS Health Navigator; Dr Michelle Farmer, Occupational Therapist & Director of Behavioral Health; Dr Karen Swisher, Physical Therapist & Director of Rehabilitation Services; Dr Brian Prestwich, Family Medicine Physician & Medical Services Director, Dr Katherine Sullivan, Founder & CEO, BTL Health, Inc. (Darian Nourian/Neon Tommy)
David Delgado, MHS Health Navigator; Dr Michelle Farmer, Occupational Therapist & Director of Behavioral Health; Dr Karen Swisher, Physical Therapist & Director of Rehabilitation Services; Dr Brian Prestwich, Family Medicine Physician & Medical Services Director, Dr Katherine Sullivan, Founder & CEO, BTL Health, Inc. (Darian Nourian/Neon Tommy)

Dr. Michelle Farmer, an occupational therapist and the station’s director of behavioral health, believes that a patient’s experience at the MetroHealth Station will differ dramatically from one at a traditional doctor’s office, due the facility’s modern architecture and colorful surroundings. 

“When patients are in here, they will forget they are at the doctor’s office because of the openness and free space within the building and the bright colors that surround them, which will in turn, make people feel more comfortable and relaxed when they are here,” Farmer said. 

The building’s invitingness is another element that Sullivan hopes will reel patients into the station and though she is not the first person to attempt to bring health care clinics to South Los Angeles, her colleagues think that it is ideas and concepts like the building’s architecture that set her health care station apart from the rest.

SEE ALSO: Not Just A South L.A. Hospital: An Artful Representation Of The Power of Community 

According to Dr. Karen Swisher, a physical therapist and the station’s director of rehabilitation services, the services offered by the station are not like the ones found in everyday health care clinics. 

“Our inter-professional wellness facilities address all aspects of health for patients, whether its medical, physical, oral or emotional health services,” Swisher said. 

Swisher explained that the station is committed to providing primary care in all four areas of wellness including family medicine, dentistry, rehabilitation and behavioral health.

She added that the station is also specifically looking to target men and women between the ages of 18 and 44 who are currently underinsured or underserved. 

Sullivan said that it’s one of the MetroHealth Station’s main goals to reduce the rate of uninsured residents by working to align new patients with potential insurance plans offered by the state’s new health insurance exchange, Covered California.  

“There is 15 degrees of separation between us and the prospective patients– five types of health care programs at three different levels to make 15 different plans,” Sullivan said. 

She seeks to get residents to sign up with the station by incentivising the fact that the station’s health navigators will help patients sign up for a plan should they not be covered yet. 

A Jefferson Park resident, who is currently uninsured, is optimistic that the station will be able to assist him in obtaining health insurance so that he can receive health care in the new building. 

“I know that I need health insurance, but I don’t know much about the different options that I can purchase so I’m hoping that I can go to the station so they can help me to get a plan and then I can see the doctors there, said 42-year-old Christopher Franklin. 

SEE ALSO: Non-Emergency Medical Service: What Happens When South L.A. Calls 911

The MetroHealth Station also seeks to build a strong bond and partnership with the community they are serving by striving to address the healthcare needs and enhance the overall wellness of the surrounding neighborhood, according to Delgado. 

“The station hopes to connect with families and individuals of the Jefferson Park neighborhood so that we can take the journey of health together,” Delgado said.

Sullivan says that it’s been a long journey getting to the position where the MetroHealth Station is today. 

Prior to founding BTL Health and the MetroHealth Station, Sullivan served as an associate professor at the University of Southern California for 12 years after graduating with her her PhD in biokinesiology from the school in 1998. 

In 2010, she, along with some of her colleagues from USC, carried out plans to build an inter-professional health station and everything that transpired after that was kind of a fluke, she explained. 

“We went to a community meeting to see if people would think this was a good idea and there happened to be people from the Metro there,” Sullivan said. “I showed them our plans and they thought it was a great idea, had me meet with an urban planner and even gave me a five-year plan.” 

BTL Health leased out the current building in May 2013 and one year and about a million dollars later, Sullivan’s first inter-professional health station is slated to open.

MetroHealth Station–Jefferson Park is currently giving tours of its facility to the public and is hoping to have patients walking in the door by July. 

If the Jefferson Park station is successful, Sullivan intends to set her sights at other stops along the Metro light-rail line so that more Angelenos like Donaldson are able to keep up with their health in a timely and convenient manner.  

“I’m so thankful for what they [MetroHealth Station] are doing,” Donaldson said. “They are going to change a lot of lives.” 


Reach contributor Darian Nourian here.



 

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