Although it took longer than originally expected, Urban Health Plan has officially started the construction of their latest addition to the Bronx.
After announcing in mid-April that they would be adding a fifth health center in the Bronx, Urban Health Plan broke ground for their new location on 1054 Southern Boulevard, just off Simpson Street, on Friday, July 8.
UHP representatives and local elected officials gathered with their shovels at the site of the future six-story, 54,000 square-foot building. The new facility is still on pace to be completed in late 2013, and will serve as a neighboring facility to UHP’s El Nuevo San Juan on 1065 Southern Boulevard.
“The Simpson Street expansion project allows us to expand our facilities and services to provide quality, affordable care to at least 20,000 additional patients,” said Paloma Hernandez, president and CEO of UHP. “It will make it possible for us to continue to impact and improve the health outcomes for out community.”
Currently, the annual primary care visits to UHP facilities in the Bronx is around 223,000. With the Simpson expansion, UHP expects the number of visits to skyrocket to 400,000 by 2016.
The $55 million dollar investment will greatly increase what the other UHP locations already have to offer, tripling the total number of medical exam rooms from 55 to 169, increasing the number of dental operatories from four to 20, expanding specialty services and special program such as geriatric and HIV/AIDS, and expanding its radiology services and provide mammography services.
The new expansion is also creating a total of over 350 construction and healthcare jobs.
Hernandez said. “This project will significantly impact the local economy by creating approximately 250 direct construction jobs and 110 full-time jobs for doctors, nurses, medical assistants and receptionists.”
Since the mid-1970s, UHP has provided obstetrics, adolescent medicine, adult primary care, gynecology, urgent care, pediatrics, dental and mental health.
