United Healthcare Foundation Center of Excellence at Jefferson Reaves

In 2004 the United Health Foundation announced a $3 million donation as part of a sustained multi-year relationship with the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine to create a “Center of Excellence” at the Jackson Health System’s Jefferson Reaves Sr. Health Center in Overtown. This grant will significantly improve access to quality health care and help reduce the devastating impact of chronic disease (Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, asthma, depression, HIV, and arthritis).

Through this generous gift, a new basket of services are now available to patients at the clinic. Multidisciplinary teams comprised of physicians, psychologists, social workers, a nutritionist and diabetes educator, physical therapists, and HIV counselors are all providing a patient centered team approach to care of patients with chronic diseases. Free HIV testing occurs on site, diabetes group visits, behavioral medicine clinics targeting depression, a functional assessment clinic targeting patients with chronic diseases, healthy lifestyle intervention study- targeting diabetes, daily nutrition clinic- targeting obesity, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes.

 “This spectacular grant from United Health Foundation will enable Robert Schwartz, M.D., the chairman of our Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, his colleagues, and our partners at the Jackson Health System, to create a national model for delivering health care in an innovative new way,” said University of Miami President Donna E. Shalala.

Contact us:
Siri Akal, MD
Medical Director
Jefferson Reaves Sr. Health Center
sakal@med.miami.edu