There are three main elements that I have always thought characterized the new space at 2611 W. Chicago Avenue in contrast to what we were accustomed to before. First, is that the space is pleasant and luminous, so that our patients no longer have to feel that they are going to a place to receive second-rate charity care. The space and surroundings now convey a sense of dignity that I believe is critically essential to accomplishing our mission to provide quality care. The second is that it is efficiently designed, so that our volunteers and staff can function well without wasting time. This contributes to maintaining an enthusiastic work environment that in turn helps us in recruiting and maintaining volunteers, which is instrumental to our operation. Lastly, the third is that the examining rooms are conducive to maintaining privacy, a necessary element in the patient-physician relationship.

My colleagues and I at CommunityHealth frequently commented about the availability, friendliness and expertise of the IFF staff. As we were embarking on such a huge undertaking as purchasing this new facility, we had many questions and uncertainties, not to mention severe financial restrictions. IFF helped us navigate through all of these problems, working closely with all of us and with the architects, in a true team spirit of collaboration. I do not think we would have accomplished our goals quite as effectively without that attitude of partnership.

Given our naivety at the time in matters of architecture and finance, I can truly say that the lessons were innumerable. To me, I suppose the one thing that stood out was the importance of examining critically every component of every decision from many points of view, so that quality, economy, functionality and feasibility could all be merged together to cause an ‘organic’ end result. And in that examination there was an element of toughness: one needs to be able to look at each decision on its own merit and without excessive reliance on an initial enthusiastic approach, a problem with many people who have a vision and don’t necessarily want to face the practicalities involved.

I have a hard time pointing out one specific solution. I suppose the entire design of the clinic has been so satisfactory and so functional that I would have to say that was the main positive result. Given the space constraints and the limited availability of funds, there were many occasions when I feared we would end up again with an inadequate set up. It was the persistence, determination and talent of the entire team that allowed us to achieve a most satisfactory and functional solution.

Let me count the ways: A greatly increased volume of free care provided to the people in our community; an improvement in the sense of dignity for our patients; an expanded capacity to attract funding and volunteers; the possibility of adding new services to complement the traditional ones; the new emphasis on educational issues; to permit our patients to achieve more control over their own health; a much more comprehensive collaboration with other agencies, hospitals and medical schools; and the new possibility of being potentially considered a leading institution in this much needed and somewhat forgotten social shortcoming in our national healthcare system.