By Karen Stokes
Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin Midtown Clinic
offering pediatric and adolescent care, mental
health and dental care. (photo by Karen Stokes)
Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin celebrated the opening of a new clinic in Midtown with a community open house on Monday.
The open house featured refreshments, activities for children, giveaways, and tours of the facility. It also featured a short program with comments from CEO Peggy Troy, Mayor Tom Barrett, Congresswoman Gwen Moore and Alderman Cavalier Johnson.
“Kids deserve the best! We need to be near the neighborhoods where the kids live and play,” Troy said. “There are a lot of families here that deserve to have holistic care and treatment.”
Mayor Barrett discussed the unrest that occurred over the weekend and described it as the most challenging weekend he has had since being mayor.
Hector Colon, Bevan Baker, Congresswoman Gwen Moore, Ald Johnson, Mayor Barrett, CEO Peggy Troy, Dr. Smriti Khare and Supervisor Taylor (photo by Karen Stokes)
“Given the difficulties we had the last couple of days, they asked if I wanted to be here with all that’s going on and my response was, you bet I’m going to be here today because I’m not going to allow negative forces to anyway derail the great successes that this community is experiencing,” said Barrett. “We are strong and resilient.”
The clinic offers pediatrics, mental health and dental services to the midtown area where there are few pediatric services for the population of children in the North side area.
The Midtown clinic is Children’s Hospital’s newest and largest health care clinic with all the care under one roof in Milwaukee.
Mayor Tom Barrett (photo by Karen Stokes)
Phyllis Carter, a North side resident, has children who were patients at the Children’s Hospital Clinic on 107th and Oklahoma. She was pleased that the new clinic was located in her community.
“I want to change my babies pediatrics from 107th and Oklahoma to here,” said Carter. “I love their services this is so convenient. As soon as I got the flyer in the mail, I came up here to make an appointment.”
A 20,000 sq. ft. clinic occupies the space where Office Depot was formerly located on 5433 W Fond du Lac Avenue.
Congresswoman Gwen Moore (photo by Karen
Stokes)
“I’ve seen this building go from an Office Depot, to vacant, to a Children’s Hospital Clinic,” said Alderman Cavalier Johnson. “This is a bright spot, this is something we should honor.”
In a community health needs assessment conducted by Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, the issues identified as the highest health priorities of children in Milwaukee were:
• Access to mental, oral and primary health care
• Obesity and weight management
• Infant mortality
• Sexual health
• Community and health safety
Inside the Children’s Hospital Midtown dental clinic. (photo by Karen Stokes)
Children’s Hospital met with the Department of Health to see where there was an unmet need in the community for healthcare and the north side was identified.
“When Peggy Troy told me that the health status for the children in Milwaukee was worse than the Mississippi Delta, that really shook me up,” said Congresswoman Moore.
“This location is the result of her commitment to making sure that this neighborhood will be healthy.”
“By bringing the health care to the community, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin is fulfilling their mission of helping the children of our community,” Mayor Barrett said.