ICHS Legacy House is a company that serves thousands of patients regionally in eleven locations each year. This company story began forty years ago and is about the residents' commitment to care for one another and the community.
The Pioneer Square Neighborhood Health Station was the only place to access care for low-income Asian immigrant families in Seattle's Chinatown forty years ago. However, it was too far for many elderly Chinese and Filipino people to walk. The Kingdome threat in the 1970s and the construction of Interstate 5 in the 1960s created an unlikely site for a medical office. The late Sister Heide Parreno, Bruce Miyahara, Bob Santos, and an accomplice group of other determined community advocates brought culturally-appropriate medical services close to Chinatown in 1973.
The Jefferson Park Clinic, owned by Dr. Eugene Ko in Beacon Hill, was conducted and donated to the Asian Community Health Clinic. The Asian Community Health Clinic at the hotel provided much-needed in-language healthcare services for elderly Filipino and Chinese patients living in single-room occupancy. Volunteers, including interpreters and mental healthcare staff, operated the clinic. It was open on Tuesday evenings and later on Saturdays.
Then came the International District Community Health Center (IDHC) and the ID Clinic in Chinatown. Many still refer to ID Clinic, the first in America to provide several Asian languages, as the first large facility. ID will move to the South Seattle International Community Health Center in 1996 because of challenges in the facility. The clinic has now joined the Holly Park Medical & Dental Clinic, in addition to the increase in patient diversity to better reflect the second location. Holly Park has attracted more patients. Hence, ICHS needed a new facility in 2003 because of the great demand. Light rail construction forced the clinic to relocate a long distance. ICHS moved to Holly Park on South Othello Street in 2005, a few blocks away.
Admission rates have increased significantly since then, especially during the Great Recession, turning the clinic into wildlife. Now, this region has a variety of wildlife. ICHS offers quality services with over 50 languages. In this way, the infections were low.
The Bellevue Medical and Dental Clinics at Crossroads, as well as the Shoreline Medical and Dental Clinics along Aurora Avenue, were opened by ICHS in 2014. ICHS grew quickly. The openings of Bellevue and Shoreline dental and medical clinics in 2014 were the culmination of community needs assessment in 2006, as well as numerous development studies that effectively addressed and met the region's needs.
The ICHS Vision Clinic was established in 2017 and was located across the ID building. Low-income patients and local residents receive culturally and linguistically sensitive eye care services.
On March 1, 2019, ICHS assumed Legacy House's operations from SCIDpda. Legacy House serves a multi-Asian resident and participates in other community activities in the Seattle Chinatown and InternationalDistrict. In addition to holistic Healthy Aging and Wellness Program, (HAWP), ICHS provides all the services at Legacy House, which include 75-unit assisted living and adult day care.
Despite numerous changes in the four decades since it opened, ICHS remains steadfast in its mission to provide culturally-appropriate health and wellness services to those in need and health equity for all.
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