University Health marks historic expansion of health services to East Side with opening of University Health Wheatley
This morning University Health leaders and team members, together with elected officials and community members and leaders, gathered to open University Health Wheatley on San Antonio’s East Side.
This new health center on the IH-10 access road at East Houston Street answers the call of our community to expand the care they need to improve health and help break cycles of chronic disease in families. It is the first of University Health’s four openings in this unprecedented $1.7 billion investment in our mission.
“In all we plan and do, we think about our unique charge to improve the good health of the community,” said University Health President and CEO Ed Banos. “Hospitals are important, but our mission meets people where they are at our clinics and health centers.
“It is in health centers like Wheatley where we connect with people for the care and resources they need to make their lives healthier, and hopefully, keep them out of the emergency room and out of the hospital,” Banos said.
A major milestone in a historic expansion
Wheatley is part of University Health’s capital improvement program, soon to be followed by the University Health Vida health center on the South Side, University Health Palo Alto Hospital and Medical Office Building next to Vida, and University Health Retama Hospital and Medical Office Building on the Northeast Side. University Health also recently purchased a closed hospital in the medical center with plans to open it as University Health Babcock Specialty Hospital next year.
Wheatley marks a huge step forward in expanding health care access in this historically underserved area, and a major realization of our mission to improve the good health of the entire community
Both the Wheatley and Vida health centers are coming to fruition thanks to the Bexar County Commissioners Court, which allocated $30 million from the American Recovery Plan Act – or ARPA – to support this important expansion of public health resources.
Services
University Health Wheatley is a one-story, 15,000-square-foot clinic at 3860 IH-10 East. It will offer primary care, walk-in urgent care 7 days a week, medical specialists, plus a full-service pharmacy, X-rays, ultrasound and laboratory services. It is also a location for the University Health Institute for Public Health, which will offer a wide range of health classes and resources in partnership with many community organizations.
Patients at Wheatley will be connected to the University Health electronic health record to improve care and coordination. That means they will be able to book appointments, request refills of their prescriptions and, if needed, be quickly connected to specialty care and hospital services within the system.
“Access to care has been a challenge for people living on the East Side of our community but Monday morning, that changes. University Health Wheatley will bring high-quality medical care right here,” said Dr. Margaret Kelley, a member of the Bexar County Hospital District Board of Managers.
“Bottom line, the goal of this center is bigger than treating illness, it’s about prevention and breaking generational cycles of health problems, like diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure in our families,” Dr. Kelley said. “Thanks to Wheatley and our Institute for Public Health, University will be focusing on strengthening the whole community.”
Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said Wheatley is a result of the lessons of the health inequities made more clear by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We saw the health care gaps that needed to be addressed,” Sakai said. “Everyone deserves the opportunity to live a healthy life. That is a basic right. This will break down the inequities of access to health care by building up the infrastructure of health care.”
Honoring history—and making history
This newest medical facility near Wheatley Heights is named for Phillis Wheatley, who in the late 1700s was the first African American to publish a book of poetry.
But it was 160 years ago when the history of University Health Wheatley began, Bexar County Precinct 4 Commissioner Tommy Calvert said. “After slavery, 1 million freed slaves died because of a lack of access to health care,” Calvert said. “We are creating a new chapter in Texas history.”
The work that went into creating Wheatley “represents the best of who we are,” he said, and the people who work there “are showing love in action every day … It’s a new chapter in health and hope and history in our community.”
Wheatley epitomizes improved health care access for underserved areas, a hub-and-spoke development strategy and a major realization of our mission to improve the good health of the entire community.
SaludArte and hands-on creative activity
Beauty is a proven element in healing, and University Health has expanded its SaludArte: Art of Healing program to Wheatley, spotlighting local and regional artists whose work was chosen to create a relaxing, healing environment. Many of these artists were present and talked with guests about their work. They included Reginald Adams, Sabra Booth, Kaldric Dow, Barbara Felix, Deborah Harris, Rhonda Radford and Larry Servin. Phillis Wheatley is honored multiple ways, the largest of which is a mixed media reproduction of a book of her poetry near the main lobby entrance.
Family arts activities also hosted through SaludArte included a quill pen writing activity so guests could try writing with a real quill pen, 18th century-style, and also a paper quilting activity inspired by the beautiful quilt installed in the Wheatley lobby.
University Health Wheatley opens for business Monday morning, Oct. 20.