Community Health Northwest Florida keeps expanding and improving with new Palafox facility

Kamal Morgan, Pensacola News Journal
·4 min read

After years at 14 W. Jordan St., Community Health Northwest Florida is moving a suite of walk-in care, primary care and pharmacy services to a new home at 1400 N. Palafox St.

The new facility will take over the former LabCorp offices and will be a 16,000-square-foot facility, a significant upgrade from the 5,000-square-foot West Jordan facility. It will have 18 exam rooms, phlebotomy and radiology departments, two large, comfortable waiting areas and a 1,000-square-foot pharmacy with a drive-thru.

The new facility is just about a half-mile south of the old location and should remain easily accessible to current CHNF patients.

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Chandra Smiley, CEO of Community Health Northwest Florida, gives a tour Monday of the organization's new facility on North Palafox Street.
Chandra Smiley, CEO of Community Health Northwest Florida, gives a tour Monday of the organization's new facility on North Palafox Street.

"We have been in that neighborhood for 30 years, so it was important that we keep a footprint in the community that we have always called home," said Chandra Smiley, CEO of Community Health Northwest Florida, in a statement announcing the grand opening.

CHNF has been in operation since 1992 and is a nonprofit community health center providing comprehensive health care services to the medically underserved people of Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.

Smiley said at Monday's grand opening that combining the walk-in clinic and pharmacy at the new location provides an opportunity for CHNF to serve patients more conveniently and efficiently.

"Our mission statement is that we believe everybody has the basic right to quality, comprehensive care and services. So it's very important that we are accessible. It's important that we have facilities that are warm and inviting, and that our services are top notch," Smiley said.

The West Jordan Street facility was able to serve about 70 to 80 patients and the new facility can easily serve over 100 patients.

"We're not just a clinic, we're a medical home, so we want to take care of the entire patient — the entire family as a matter of fact — because we have pediatric services, we have dental services, we have behavioral health and wellness services," Smiley said.

Community Health Northwest Florida has relocated its primary care, walk-in facility to North Palafox Street in Pensacola. The new facility has 18 exam rooms, phlebotomy and radiology departments, two waiting areas and a 1,000-square-foot pharmacy with a drive-thru.
Community Health Northwest Florida has relocated its primary care, walk-in facility to North Palafox Street in Pensacola. The new facility has 18 exam rooms, phlebotomy and radiology departments, two waiting areas and a 1,000-square-foot pharmacy with a drive-thru.

The facility is right off of an Escambia County Area Transit line where patients who need help with transportation can easily take the bus and get dropped off right in front of the clinic.

In a few weeks, the clinic will also be using the building next door at 1380 N. Palafox St. for its behavioral health and wellness services. It will offer yoga and meditation classes, an optometry store and some additional space for onboarding and staff training.

The pharmacy will feature a drive-thru that will allow people to refill their prescriptions without having to enter the clinic. It will also allow easier access to the providers if something is wrong with prescriptions. CHNF will also still use its delivery driver to deliver to homebound patients.

Dr. Darrell Miller, chief of the pharmacy office, feels it is a win-win situation for everyone at the clinic.

"It just makes it easier to work with the providers for the patients' benefit," Miller said. "For the patient, it's just a great benefit for them to have everything under one roof. They can visit their provider, get their labs, X-rays and their pharmacy all in one place."

According to its website, CHNF has 17 locations across Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.

Flooding damaged CHNF's first offices at 2200 N. Palafox St., forcing the clinic to move to 14 W. Jordan St. The facility served as the clinic's headquarters until 2018, when CHNF moved to new a new, modern facility at 2315 W. Jackson St.

The new North Palafox Street location is open seven days a week. The hours of operation are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

CHNF's Pharmacy at Palafox will be open from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays.

CHNF accepts Medicaid and Medicaid Managed Care plans, including Simply Healthcare, Sunshine Health, WellCare and Humana, as well as most commercial insurances. The health center also provides a sliding fee scale plan for uninsured patients.

All providers are accepting new patients at the Palafox location.  For more information, call Community Health Northwest Florida at Palafox at 850-444-9449 or visit healthcarewithinreach.org or its Facebook page.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: CHNF offering primary care, pharmacy for Pensacola's underinsured