VNA Health Care Grand Opening For Joliet Clinic

JOLIET, IL — VNA Health Care, the largest Community Health Center in the Chicago suburbs, celebrated Tuesday's grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new health center in Joliet.

The new facility at 1501 West Jefferson Street includes 26 medical exam rooms, a wellness kitchen, waiting areas, a laboratory, nursing stations, mental/behavioral health counseling rooms, and a drive-thru pharmacy. At the newly completed 14,000 square foot facility, VNA physicians and nurse practitioners offer family practice, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, and mental/behavioral health services.

This extra capacity allows VNA to expand its services for Joliet and surrounding communities, and they expect to serve 5,000 patients and complete 25,000 exams over the next two years.

At Tuesday's grand opening and ribbon-cutting, VNA President and CEO Linnea Windel was joined by Congressman Bill Foster, Congresswoman Lauren Underwood, State Senator Rachel Ventura, State Representative Dagmara Avelar, Joliet Mayor Terry D’Arcy and many others.

“VNA is thrilled to officially open our new health center in Joliet. At this clinic, we will expand our services to those in need as we strive to positively impact the lives of thousands of people in the area and the community as a whole,” said VNA President and CEO Linnea Windel. “Providing high-quality, affordable health care for people who would otherwise experience difficulty obtaining care is central to our purpose, and we are grateful that we are able to expand the reach of our services. We appreciate Congressman Foster and Congresswoman Underwood for their support in advocating for the federal funding that made this project a reality, and we are happy that so many friends of VNA were here to celebrate this moment with us today.”

The VNA noted that Joliet and the surrounding communities that are served by the new VNA clinic have a low-income population of 63,000, but only 23,000 are currently served by Community Health Centers.

In Will County, approximately 8 percent of residents live below the poverty line.

To address the 31.5 percent of the Hispanic/Latino population in Will County that speaks English less than “very well,” the new Joliet clinic offers all services in both English and Spanish with additional languages available through translation services.

“This ribbon cutting is such a proud moment for our community,” said Congresswoman Lauren Underwood. “This new VNA health center is a great example of how we can use federal resources to expand local access to high-quality care. I’m so pleased that we were able to deliver this funding, and I’m going to keep working hard to expand access to affordable, high-quality health care for every family in our community.”