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Urgent care clinic opens in Libertyville; ‘Our team is ready to deliver high-quality care … in a compassionate manner'

Urgent care clinic opens in Libertyville; ‘Our team is ready to deliver high-quality care … in a compassionate manner'

Chicago Tribune20-02-2025
A new urgent care facility in Libertyville will help fill a healthcare gap in the community, according to local leaders during the ribbon-cutting Tuesday for an American Family Care clinic Tuesday.
Libertyville Mayor Donna Johnson said the 4,000-square-foot facility will provide additional healthcare options for residents who would otherwise have to go to overstrained emergency rooms.
'We all know that when they take the time to diagnose you properly, it makes for better healthcare, and then people don't have to come back and they stay healthier,' Johnson said.
Located at 1366 South Milwaukee Ave., the clinic has nine exam rooms, a procedure suite and on-site X-ray capabilities, according to a press release, and joins nearly 400 walk-in AFC clinics across the United States.
The facility is meant to address an issue operator Dr. Armen Asatryan himself has faced, he said. Doctors are overloaded, Asatryan said, recalling an instance when his wife wanted to see her doctor and had to wait weeks, or when he found himself several years ago waiting in an ER for hours.
Asatryan is an Armenian immigrant who came to the U.S. almost three decades ago. In the release, Asatryan said healthcare has seen a 'significant transformation, especially since COVID,' and there is a need for 'immediate and affordable options for clinical care.'
'When you have a headache or something hurts, you have two choices,' Asatryan said. 'Either go to the ER or call our doctor. Unfortunately, in both instances, there is a long wait.'
In the release, Asatryan emphasized the time and cost benefits the clinic will bring, a sentiment shared by Johnson. The AFC will be a 'good option in their backyard' for residents across the economic strata, she said.
'You bring a level of staff … physicians, nurses and support staff, that have the time to spend with patients, to hear their needs,' Johnson said.
Not including himself and his wife, Asatryan said the facility will have six full-time and four part-time staffers. He estimated they will be able to see about 40-50 people a day.
Asatryan has worked in clinical, research and public health settings. He holds an MD from Yerevan State Medical University and an MPH from Emory University, and completed residencies in internal medicine at the Medical College of Georgia and preventive medicine at Emory University School of Medicine.
'Dr. Asatryan and the clinic's staff are dedicated to leveraging their broad expertise and experience to provide high quality, accessible, and affordable care to the people in Libertyville and nearby communities,' the release said.
Beyond urgent care, the clinic will partner with area businesses to be a resource for occupational health services, providing local businesses with help in treating work-related injuries, administering drug screens and conducting pre-employment and on-the-job periodic physicals, the release said.
'We see this new clinic as a healthcare center for families, local businesses and everyone else needing our services,' Asatryan said. 'From sore throats and coughs to sprained ankles and cuts, to on-the-job injuries and physicals, our team is ready to deliver high-quality care quickly, conveniently and affordably in a compassionate manner.'
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Oswaldo Muñoz, pioneer of Venezuelan community in Miami, dies after long illness
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Oswaldo Muñoz, pioneer of Venezuelan community in Miami, dies after long illness

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'Disabling' Chronic Illness in Children Not Taken Seriously: Experts

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A new study by Rutgers University has highlighted that a significant number of young children are experiencing ongoing symptoms after COVID-19 infection, signifying that greater research needs to be poured into evaluating the risk and treatment of long COVID in children. The study, released on July 23, coincides with Pediatric Long COVID Awareness Week, running from July 21 to 25, run by the advocacy group Long Covid Families. Over the course of the week, the group has been bringing together families, clinicians, researchers, and advocates to raise more awareness on the wide-reaching impact of long COVID in children. "This is a public health crisis for children. And it demands action," Long Covid Families said in its promotion of the condition's awareness week. 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It can result in a wide range of symptoms, affecting multiple systems in the body. Co-author of the study, Lawrence Kleinman, who is also chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Rutgers University, told Newsweek that he was not "surprised by these findings and would not be surprised to learn in the future that they understate the prevalence of long COVID." Previous studies estimated the prevalence of long COVID in children to be between 10 and 20 percent—suggesting it has become one of the most common chronic illnesses in children. Asthma, often described as the most common chronic illness in children, affects 16 percent. "Our methods were designed to be conservative, that is to maximize the likelihood that we distinguished long COVID from other causes," Kleinman said. "That means that our estimates are likely to be lower than the actual rate of long COVID." "At the beginning of the pandemic, no one knew that long COVID existed," he added. The first reports from China included" inaccurate reports" that children were spared COVID, he said, adding that the reports "grew into a myth which in turn created a mindset that COVID in kids didn't matter." As a result, there "was a misconception that children could not get COVID - but we know that's not true," Melissa Stockwell, another author of the study and chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Health at Columbia University, told Newsweek. "We are still very behind in raising awareness about long COVID in children," she added. Another reason why long COVID was not taken seriously in children is that "the symptoms associated with long COVID in children were not properly defined," Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at the Yale School of Medicine, told Newsweek. She added that the study underscored "the need for the society to take long COVID in children seriously." 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