Erie’s refugees and immigrants could soon have shorter wait times to see a primary-care doctor, chiropractor or counselor.
Multi-Cultural Health Evaluation Delivery System is opening a third medical office to handle the needs of the area’s growing New American population. The office is located at 826 Parade St. and its providers will start seeing patients Nov. 4.
“I was officially named CEO on Feb. 4 and the day after that I called a real estate agent to see about a third office,” said Alivia Haibach, CEO of MHEDS. “We simply didn’t have enough space to see all the patients we needed to see.”
Created in 1972, MHEDS is a federally qualified health center that is also the region’s official provider of refugee health screenings. As the number of immigrants and refugees relocated to Erie has risen in recent years, so has MHEDS’ patient population, Haibach said.
Its current offices at 2928 Peach St. and at the JFK Center, 2021 E. 20th St., were no longer enough to handle the demand.
“We literally didn’t have the space for additional health-care providers who could reduce patients’ wait times,” Haibach said. “We see about 900 patients a month and once we open the new location, we will be able to see about 1,400 a month.”