The Center for Better Aging opened July 23 at St. Bernard Hospital in Chicago with a goal of improving health equity among older adults.
The center is part of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services' Healthcare Transformation Collaboratives program, according to a news release from the hospital.
It provides adults 50 and older with primary care, wellness education and social services, the release said. By recruiting physicians, nurse practitioners and other professionals with experience treating older adults, the center seeks to address the aging care practitioner shortage in neighborhoods on the city's South Side, where the primary care provider to resident ratio is less than half of the city's average.
Community partners will also make connections with adults without a primary care provider and coordinate follow-ups, the release said.
Conversations about the need for age-friendly healthcare come at a time when 57 million Americans are 65 and older; that number is expected to rise to 89 million by 2060. Within a decade, older Americans will outnumber younger Americans, according to Michael Dowling, co-author of "The Aging Revolution" and CEO of New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health.