Urban Health Plan, Inc., (UHP) is a federally qualified community health center licensed as a diagnostic and treatment center under Article 28 of the New York State Public Health Law and accredited by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). UHP is in its 33rd year of providing comprehensive and affordable primary and specialty health care services to the Hunts Point, Mott Haven and Morrisania sections of the Bronx. Its facilities include its main site, two satellites, five school programs, four part time facilities, and two administrative/program sites that house its WIC program as well as other grant funded programs.

UHP began in 1974 as an evolution of a group practice with the mission of providing basic and specialty medical care, comparable to those found in local hospital outpatient clinics, to the community's predominantly Hispanic and poor residents. It is the brainchild of Dr. Richard Izquierdo, a life-long resident of the South Bronx and a Pediatrician/Family Practitioner. Concerned by his community's declining health status, and unable to meet the demand for primary medical service in his burgeoning private practice, Dr. Izquierdo sought to expand his practice into an HMO-style practice that offered care in a consistent, cost effective, and managed manner. Because of the lack of primary care services in the area, many residents had grown accustomed to waiting out long lines in local hospital Emergency Rooms for routine medical care or for the treatment of acute medical conditions, which could have been prevented if diagnosed earlier. Dr. Izquierdo opened the San Juan Health Center in 1967. Seven years later, UHP, a private, non-profit corporation licensed by the Department of Health, was born to broaden the scope of the work started by the San Juan Health Center.

Today, UHP delivers care to over 27,000 patients who account for 145,000 visits through a network of facilities that include a state-of-the-art 37,000 square foot health center, which opened in 2001; three satellite health centers, five school-based health centers (SBHC) serving children and teens and two homeless shelters. UHP handles more than 400 patient visits a day and provides some of the finest medical care in New York City. The agency offers a full array of primary, specialty, and ancillary care services, including internal medicine, pediatrics, adolescent clinic, family medicine, allergy, audiology, surgery, pulmonology, physical medicine, physical therapy, neurology, cardiology, psychiatry, OB/GYN, radiology, among others.

UHP is designated NYS Preferred Primary Care Provider, Prenatal Care Assistance Provider, an HIV Primary Care Provider, and a WIC provider. Over the years, UHP has formed alliances with several community-based organizations to provide health care services in alternate delivery sites. These sites consist of local schools, an adult day treatment program, a Boys and Girls Club, and homeless shelters.

The agency is affiliated with Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, Lincoln Medical & Mental Health Center, Our Lady of Mercy Hospital, and Jacobi Medical Center.

UHP has been actively involved with the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau of Primary Health Care Health Care Disparities Collaboratives and has received national recognition for its performance improvement work. Its work with the asthmatic population in the South Bronx has greatly contributed to the reduction in pediatric hospitalizations related to asthma as reported by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. JCAHO highlighted UHP as a "Spotlight on Success" for this work. UHP has recently initiated the "UHP Institute for the Advancement of Community Health" as the cornerstone for all of its performance improvement and safety initiatives. Through these efforts, we have developed an outstanding Health Education Department and are in the process of developing a program of community health workers or "promotoras" that can serve as adjuncts to the care that is provided within their facilities.

About our Founder

Richard Izquierdo, affectionately known as "Doc", was born in East Harlem on October 23, 1929 to Serafin and Sinda Izquierdo one of New York City's first "bodegueros". Doc was raised throughout New York State and Puerto Rico, moving from East Harlem to the Bronx to Newburgh to Puerto Rico and finally settling in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx.

His desire to become a physician began at the early age of 5, when he was innocently asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, and he assuredly and rapidly responded "a doctor". From then on, there was no doubt that one day Richard Izquierdo would indeed become one.

Doc graduated from James Monroe High School in the Bronx and attended Long Island University from where he graduated. After a short stint of coursework at the University of Puerto Rico, he chose to attend the University of Madrid Medical School. When he arrived in Spain, he discovered heaven and immediately fell in love with Spain's people, their generosity, and their way of life. He married his wife of now forty-seven years, Adelita, and took a shot at many things, among them becoming a star photographer for the Department of Surgery where his pictures were used as the illustrations in at least two textbooks.

While attending the University of Madrid Medical School, he jointly enrolled at the University of Lausanne Medical School in Switzerland where he graduated in 1957. Upon his return to the United States, Doc completed his internship and residency programs in pediatrics at Fordham Hospital and in 1962, he opened his first practice on Southern Boulevard in the Bronx, merely two blocks from his home.

By 1964, Doc had not only become a thriving physician but also a community activist. He served as the Chairman of the Hunts Point Community Committee and for fourteen years served as the Chairman of the 41st Precinct Community Council, the precinct that famously became known as Fort Apache. In 1964, Doc also fought arduously to keep St. Francis Hospital in the Bronx open. He formed a group of community activists called "The Committee to Save St. Francis Hospital" and created a make shift clinic in a nearby apartment and named it the St Francis Annex and commenced to see patients. Although ultimately unsuccessful in keeping the hospital open, they were successful at having the City of New York purchase and convert the property to what today is known as the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Neighborhood Family Health Center, one of New York City's Health and Hospitals sites where thousands of South Bronx residents receive medical care.

In 1967, Doc purchased an empty building on Southern Boulevard and Westchester Avenue with a meager down payment of $3000 and created the San Juan Health Center. He named it so as a tribute to Puerto Rico and as a start of an identification process with a cultural institution that would serve as a role model for his community.

Throughout the years, Doc has served on numerous and varied organizations. He hosted a radio program called "Puerto Rican Panorama" and interviewed over 250 prominent Puerto Ricans. He ran for the New York City Council in 1977. He has served consistently on New York City' s Community Planning Board 2 from 1967 when he served as its Chairman and at present chairs its Health and Human Services committee. He has always been an active member of the Bronx Medical Society. He continues to serve on the board of the Association for the Help of Retarded Children in recognition of how special children with developmental disabilities are and in honor and memory of Jackie, Doc's third child who was born with Down's Syndrome.

Doc's dedication however has always been to serving the medical needs of his community. For many years, Doc was the only doctor in the community. He became an icon for the neighborhood and a person that was always sought after, always accessible to meet the community's many needs-including seeing patients regardless of whether they had money to pay for services or making house calls in the middle of the night. He truly became the urban country doctor.

The San Juan Health Center that he created operated as such form 1967 until 1974 when it became Urban Health Plan, a federally qualified community health center licensed by New York State. He spearheaded its growth and today Urban Health Plan is one of the largest health centers in New York State and provides services to over 26,000 community residents. It is currently composed of three health center sites, several school health programs, and a Women Infants and Children's Nutrition Program. He early on recognized the need for expanded space. And dreamed of a larger Urban Health Plan where multi-specialty services could be offered in a culturally sensitive environment. The inauguration of "El Nuevo San Juan" a 37,000 square foot facility, in 2001 realized his dream.

Doc also founded Multi Medic Physician Services, PC, which is where he has been practicing medicine for the past 15 years. This endeavor excels in the performance of pre- employment physical examinations and has been in the forefront of providing medical services to managed care patients. It is not rare to see loyal patients at Multi Medic who have been Doc's patients since the early days of his practice, patients who have long left the community but still travel from Brooklyn, New Jersey or Long Island to be taken care of by the doctor that they love and trust.

Dr. Izquierdo has lived a life of giving to the South Bronx, the community where he grew up in and has always called his own. Through his humble beginnings as a young physician, his years of advocacy, his tremendous pride in being Puerto Rican and his extraordinary commitment in serving the medical needs of the South Bronx community, Dr. Izquierdo is a legend in his own time.