Warren health community center offering patients new services
The Warren West Community Center reopened its doors after being closed for 9 months.
The center held a ribbon cutting to celebrate the reopening of the ONE Ohio Health center.
With the completion of the center's modernization project, ONE Ohio Health added new resources for patients. One of these programs is a collaboration with Second Harvest Food bank, and focuses on helping patients who may not have access to healthier options. The program started a year ago but is being brought back for the center's patients.
The cost of healthy food can make it out of reach for some families. The Food is Medicine Program gives 300 patients access to healthier food.
"We realize that there's a lot of people that come in with health issues that perhaps could be alleviated with healthy eating. So, we collaborated together and we came up with these boxes that the second harvest food bank is producing," said Mike Iberis, executive director at the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley.
Patients get a box of healthy food and a recipe every month for free. After they get the boxes, ONE Health Ohio will monitor the results.
"We survey the patients, and we hear all kinds of great things. Like, they get to try new things like our garbanzo beans and peanut butter. Things we take for granted that we eat every day but not everyone has access to," said Dr. Maria Kowal, chief medical officer at ONE health Ohio.
One of the other additions to the center is an in house pharmacy called the "Prescription Pad."
"We have started clinical pharmacy services, which include a team of pharmacists that help educate our patients about chronic conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure,," said Kowal.
In addition to the Prescription Pad, One Health Ohio added more exams rooms and expanded dental and behavioral health services.
These services are only available to ONE Health Ohio patients.