Services We Offer
- Whole-person primary care for physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being
- Adult & pediatric primary care
- Asthma, diabetes, blood pressure control programs
- Dental Care (adults and children)
- Drug & Alcohol outreach and relapse prevention program
- Hearing/Vision screening
- Homebound elderly outreach
- Homeless outreach & medical clinic in homeless drop-in center
- Immunizations/Well-child care/WIC
- Lab Services
- Medical Care - Urgent
- Obstetric/Gynecology services & Pre-natal outreach services
- On-call physician services 24 hours/day
- Ophthalmalogical services for diabetics
- Parent/patient/family education
- Pediatric home visits to families in crisis
- Podiatry services
- Psychology & counseling services (indiv/family)
- Prescription Discount Program (pharmacy)
- Pastoral Care Services
- Social Work
- Spiritual support
People often think that healthcare for the poor is second-class healthcare. Since the money isn't there, the quality couldn't be either. This has never been the case at the East Liberty Family Health Care Center. Our track record proves that if you're looking for a primary care provider in Pittsburgh, you couldn't do any better anywhere else.
Every year since 1982, more people have come to the East Liberty Family Health Care Center for their primary health care needs. Fully one-third of these are privately insured families who could go anywhere, but choose the Center because of its quality. In 2007, we provided 39,000+ encounters of "whole-person" care for more than 8,000 patients, and our most recent patient satisfaction rate was over 95%.
The East Liberty Family Health Care Center operates two comfortable, attractive offices staffed by fifteen doctors and two mid-level practitioners, all of whom have made and kept a long-term commitment to this practice. Appointments are available 5 days/week from as early as 8:30 am to as late as 8 pm. A doctor is always on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All our doctors are credentialed by virtually every insurer and every hospital in our service area.
Through our Birth Circle program, we deliver healthy babies. Then, we help young moms raise healthy babies by making sure they keep every immunization visit through age two. Well-child visits typically provide forty minutes to fully educate parents about their baby's health.
Certified mental health counselors from Pittsburgh Pastoral Institute are on site every week. Social workers help our patients enroll in Medical Assistance and other entitlement services to support them in their journey toward "whole-person" health.
At the Lincoln-Lemington Office, we have a full-time dentist and hygienist to meet all of our patients' oral health needs. Also at Lincoln-Lemington, when one of our physicians writes a prescription, our Pharmacist can fill it on the spot at a price based on income.
All of our practitioners are board-certified, and make a long-term commitment to this ministry, so they can develop their skills as well as their knowledge of the unique needs of our patients. Our doctors audit each others' charts to ensure quality care and compliance with best practices, and our Quality Assurance team meets monthly to improve patient compliance in key areas such as immunizations, diabetes, and hypertension. We measure our performance against federal standards such as Healthy People 2010 to make sure that our care is the best we can give. As a result, we find that our immunization rates are among the highest in Allegheny County, and that our patients are generally doing better at managing chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension than anywhere else.
A Safety Net for the Most Vulnerable. Our two offices are intentionally located in Pittsburgh' East End, in the heart of two neighborhoods of great socio-economic need. But we do not stay inside the office walls. When people have whole-person health needs that are not getting met inside the walls of our offices, we take the needed services to meet them where they are.
We provide more than 2,500 visits for the Homebound Elderly every year, with no maximum number of visits. We stay with our homebound as long as they're alive, keeping them independent and out of the hospital, often helping them die in their homes with dignity and peace.
We go to local Homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and drop-in centers to form relationships with the homeless, and when trust develops, invite them into care at our offices.
We send community workers to the streets of East Liberty every day, helping the addicted get into recovery, treatment, community, and hope.
Our Pediatric Outreach staff goes into the homes of young mothers to educate them and help them manage the health and psycho-social needs of their babies. And our newest outreach venture is training women neighborhood leaders ("Community Ambassadors") to be knowledgeable about prenatal care, pre-conceptual counseling and breastfeeding, and to share that knowledge on the buses, in the beauty parlors, or wherever they go, in order to finally begin to reduce Pittsburgh's unacceptably high rate of black infant mortality.
Taking Time to Care. Most of all, what our patients count on is practitioners who know them by name, and who take the time to care. Our doctors spend two to three times as long as an insurance-driven practice with every patient. They take time to listen to the "whole-person" needs of each patient. At the end of every visit, a doctor and a nurse will offer to join hands and offer prayer for the patient's concerns. Participation is voluntary, and respects the different religious traditions of our patients. But even science is beginning to recognize what the church has known through the ages-the healing power of human touch and Divine prayer.