Jane Pauley, a native daughter, dedicates health center

The building dates to the 1950s, the same period that the Pauley family and their daughter Jane moved into the Eastside neighborhood. As Jane went on to graduate from Warren Central High School and become a nationally renowned television journalist, the one-story building on 16th Street housed a series of doctors' offices and a pharmacy.

Pauley, one of the best-known daughters of the Eastside, stood in front of the modest building for Monday's grand opening of the 12th site in the Jane Pauley Community Health Center family.

"I grew up as far from 16th Street as I'm standing now," said Pauley, recalling how her mother used to race east on 16th to bring her her gym clothes in high school, and how she and her father drove west on the street to purchase her first car, a green Opel. "This building dates back to the 1950s, and so do I."

Started just five years ago as a single health center in Warren Township's Renaissance School, the Jane Pauley Community Health Center saw 1,500 patients in its first four months.

About 2½ years ago, the center started expanding to other sites on the Eastside to increase its ability to help those without health insurance and on Medicaid. Last year, the sites, including one that offers dental services, logged more than 25,000 patient visits.

The newest Jane Pauley Community Health Center, at 5317 E. 16th St., sits in the shadow of Community Hospital East — and that's no coincidence. The organization grew out of a collaboration involving Warren Township Schools, the Community Health Network and the Community Health Network Foundation.

Community Hospital East's emergency room has seen more than a 60 percent increase in patient volume in recent years, and many of those patients could have been seen in an outpatient doctor setting, said Scott Teffeteller, East Region president of the Community Health Network.

Patients who don't already have a primary care provider are often referred to a Jane Pauley Community Health Center and given a voucher for their first visit.

Community is grateful that this facility has been put "in our backyard," Teffeteller said.

About 50 percent of the patients seen at the Jane Pauley Community Health Center sites have Medicaid, and about 30 percent have no insurance, said Marc Hackett, the organization's executive director. Fees are charged on a sliding scale based on household income.

The 16th Street site, which opened in May, sees many children among the 75 to 100 patients a day the four providers treat, Hackett said.

"There are no providers in this area," he said, "so we see a lot of emergency room diversion."

The majority of the babies born in the hospital just to the east have no insurance, and the health center is poised to treat those youngest patients.

There are 12 completely refurbished exam rooms and a laboratory, as well as a wing devoted to behavioral health in the 12,000-square-foot facility, about half of which is being used.

The pharmacy will remain open, and health center officials are pondering a dental clinic on the site.

For Pauley, 16th Street holds plenty of memories. She recalled how her father had almost died in Community Hospital East, but a surgery there saved his life, and he went on to live 12 more years.

When Warren Township Schools officials asked Pauley to lend her name to the collaboration that would produce the health center, she said, she did not hesitate.

"I am in awe of what Community East has done for my neighborhood," she said.

Monday, at least one member of that neighborhood came out to pay tribute to what Pauley has done for the area.

Sue King, 87, lived across the street from the Pauley family. She still lives in that same house and came to the opening to reunite with her former neighbor.

"She was just a little girl," she said. "She's still just common 'Janey' to me."

Call Star reporter Shari Rudavsky at (317) 444-6354. Follow her on Twitter: @srudavsky.