NYC Council Member Vanessa Gibson Tours Alegria

Friday, March 26 was a banner day for Alegria, as we hosted our very first local representative, NYC Council Member Vanessa L. Gibson. The hour long visit began with an introduction of Alegria’s mission, delivered by President, CEO, and clinical pharmamcist Kevin Askari, “Bringing all these medical services together under one roof will provide better patient care for the local community.”

Chief Medical Officer, Walid Michelin, and Executive Director, Ellen Scharaga led Council Member Gibson through the 14,000 facility, including the X-ray suite, examination rooms, care manager offices, ultrasound area, fluoroscopy and mammogram suite, cardica care area, laboratory, 3 bay infusion suite, private compunding pharmacy, dental exam suite, pediatric exam and lobby, and behavioral health area. During the walk through, Council Member Gibson remarked many times about the need for improved health care access in this area of the Bronx, “The Bronx has the highest death rate due to Covid-19, but even before Covid hit we had a lot of health disparities.”

Alegria’s Chief Outreach Officer, Miosotis Munoz, expressed the facility’s desire to help design solutions to this disparity, “We want to treat the whole community, not just the individual. We want to work with your office and other community leaders to design solutions that work for area residents.”