New $35 million health facility in Wichita to be part of a larger ‘really cool story’

Teresa Lovelady was an uninsured student with little money in 2006 when she had to seek treatment for her young, asthmatic son.

“I didn’t want to be mommy shamed,” she said.

HealthCore Clinic not only helped the two but then also offered free well-and-sick child visits to her son until he turned 5.

“And I’ve been a part of their mission ever since.”

Today, Lovelady is HealthCore’s president and CEO and is leading the nonprofit on its biggest mission yet. She’s embarking on a campaign to finance as much as $35 million for a second HealthCore site, this time in south Wichita.

HealthCore co-founders Arneatha Martin and Bud Gates raised $2.6 million to open the original clinic, then called the Center for Health and Wellness, in 5,500 square feet in 1998.

Lovelady led an almost $11 million campaign to open a new, 45,000-square-foot clinic at 2707 E. 21st St. in 2018.

The latest clinic will offer similar services but in a 75,000-square-foot building on five acres of the 70-acre OneRise Health Campus, the Lange Community Foundation’s planned behavioral health campus near the northwest corner of Meridian and MacArthur.

“Mental health issues are front and center in a way these days more so than they ever have been,” said Jeff Lowrance of Lange Real Estate. “So we feel like the timing’s really good to do something transformational.”

Lowrance said mental illness can cover a lot of things, such as addiction.

“Those issues don’t discriminate.”

HealthCore has a broader reach, offering behavioral health services — including therapy and help with addiction and psychiatric issues — along with medical, dental, pharmaceutical, imaging and optical services, among other things.

“We’ve just been blown away with how amazing HealthCore is,” Lowrance said.

Gates and his son, Ryan, introduced Lowrance to Lovelady — “She’s an angel,” Lowrance said — to explain what the Lange family is trying to do with OneRise.

“And about 15 minutes in, she’s like, ‘You know what? I’m going to help you do that,’ ” Lowrance said.

“Everyone else thinks we’re stupid or crazy or both.”

Lowrance said he had no idea how important HealthCore is to the northeast area of Wichita, and Lovelady said that’s what she wants to do for the south side.

“We know there’s a huge need for access to what we do on the south side,” she said.

Matt Tannehill, director of strategic initiatives for the Lange Community Foundation, said that “HealthCore is this truly amazing model of integrated health.”

“They solve that need within that area.”

He said south and southwest Wichita are historically areas without enough resources.

HealthCore is “a great anchor . . . to help piece together what this campus is striving to be,” Tannehill said.

He said the clinic’s model is to leave no one unserved.

“That’s really, really powerful. That’s what we want to be.”

A community resource

As an integrated health care facility, the new HealthCore will offer services beyond health care to “support the community (in) that part of town,” Lovelady said.

There will be a poverty innovation center within it to examine the social determinants that lead to health issues. Like at the northeast clinic, there will be a food pantry as well with fresh fruits, vegetables, canned goods and frozen meats.

Lovelady said HealthCore will provide access to services regardless of someone’s ability to pay. She said HealthCore was founded to make certain everyone in northeast Wichita has affordable access to primary care because there are huge health disparities.

Many of HealthCore’s patients are below the poverty level. Lovelady said there is a sliding fee based on income.

Of the almost 11,000 people the clinic currently serves annually, 35% are uninsured, 40% are on Medicaid, 10% are on Medicare and 15% have commercial insurance.

HealthCore helps connect uninsured people with ways to get insured.

“That’s what’s really beneficial,” Lovelady said.

Other services include anger management classes, parent training and other court-approved courses. There will be diabetes and nutrition classes.

Like at the northeast clinic, there will be a physical fitness room to get people ready to then have YMCA memberships and start working out there with confidence.

Part of the new center will be designed so if the clinic ever has to do mass vaccinations, it can.

There also will be a conference center for 250 people.

“It’s going to be open to the community as well,” Lovelady said.

HealthCore also has a mobile unit.

“We try to take the best of what we do here and put it in a mobile unit to take out in the community,” Lovelady said.

HealthCore also serves Wichita’s refugee population.

“We are the international patient health home for south-central Kansas,” Lovelady said.

She said HealthCore has helped hundreds of refugees get connected to care.

Part of her mission is to reduce and eliminate stigma, especially for minority communities. Lovelady’s compassion and passion show through.

“I just love HealthCore.”

Lowrance said HealthCore is an innovative system that combines many things.

“They do it in an extremely sophisticated way,” he said. “It’s state-of-the-art across the board. You wouldn’t hesitate to go there.”

‘A better way’

The new HealthCore will locate in the CrossGate District, which is what Lange Real Estate has branded 13 square miles — from I-235 on the north, I-35 on the east and the Big Ditch on the west and south — and where it plans a $200 million to $300 million investment in the next three decades.

“It’s a medical desert,” Lowrance said.

“We’re laser focused on the behavioral health stuff. I’m sure that will evolve as the campus grows.”

OneRise is working with WestEast Design Group, an architectural firm that worked on Haven for Hope in San Antonio.

Tannehill, who came on board to lead the OneRise development in October, has been working with representatives from WestEast and Haven for Hope on how to proceed.

They’re “really helping us create this framework of what could be here in Wichita.”

He’s also “talking to nonprofits to get a sense of where they are currently and where their needs are and the needs of the community.”

A big goal with OneRise is connectivity.

After examining current systems in Wichita, Tannehill said, “We are so fragmented.”

There may be numerous services to help people in crisis, but in having to navigate those, he said, “We see that mental health crises are exacerbated.”

OneRise is about bringing nonprofits and medical providers together.

“There are some wonderful, amazing nonprofits that are doing some wonderful work,” Tannehill said.

However, he said, “We’re kind of continuously doing the same thing, and not much is changing. . . . How could we create a system and help improve on the systems that really moves the needle?”

Tannehill said it’s about helping groups both further their missions and be collaborative on the campus.

He said the Lange family believes that connectivity improvements need to be made in particular with nonprofits focusing on homelessness.

Family members “honestly understood they weren’t the experts, but they knew they wanted to be part of this change.”

When Lowrance envisions OneRise, he said he wants “to have a space for folks that are unshelterable.”

“We don’t know how to do that yet,” he said. “We’re trying to put that puzzle together.”

He said when he sees mentally ill people living on the streets of downtown, he thinks, “There’s got to be a better way.”

‘Really cool story’

There are discussions with other groups about locating at OneRise, and Lowrance said there may be a spec building on the 70 acres at some point.

Even if nothing else developed there, though, he said, “Bringing a HealthCore facility . . . is a game-changer for the CrossGate District.”

Tannehill said, “One, it’s going to show the legitimacy of our intentionality of really creating change for our community.”

He said HealthCore shows sustainability.

“That’s the important piece. . . . HealthCore is the first anchor for this, but we see many more to come.”

Lovelady said she hopes to break ground in 2024 or 2025 on a 14-to-16 month build with Hutton.

“When we first started talking about this we were at $25 million,” Lovelady said.

With inflation, the cost of everything has gone up.

Lovelady is seeking of mix of grants, federal funds, tax credits, investments and money from donors.

And she said she’s looking forward to collaborating with others who follow at OneRise.

“There is a really cool story here,” she said.

Tannehill said it “is really helping create that community where every member lives their healthiest and most-fulfilling life.”

It’s about new beginnings, like the one Lovelady had herself.

After she graduated school and got insurance, she decided to return to HealthCore, and she initially gave back by serving as a board member before becoming a paid employee and eventually leading the organization.

“I didn’t know where to go, and they were there for me.”