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Meet John M. Silva, Chief Executive Officer of Tulsa-Based Morton Comprehensive Health Services

Aired on Tuesday, February 5th.

On this installment of StudioTulsa on Health, our guest host, Dr. John Henning Schumann, chats with John Silva, CEO of Morton Comprehensive Health Services, a non-profit organization which dates back to 1921 --- it first came into being as Maurice Willows Hospital, when it was created by the American Red Cross in the immediate wake of the Tulsa Race Riot --- and which is now one of Oklahoma's largest community health centers. (You'll find a bio of Silva at this link, and a detailed history of the development of Morton is linked here.) Silva, who previously served as president of the National Association of Community Health Centers --- the largest association of community, migrant, and homeless health centers in the nation) --- tells us that, as a part of Vision 2025, Morton built an impressive 60,000-square-foot facility on five acres in the Lansing Business Park in North Tulsa. The facility opened in 2006, and there are now satellite Morton facilities in other parts of Tulsa, as well as a rural health center in Nowata, Oklahoma. Silva also talks about the origins and defining characteristics, as well as the broader mission and scope, of community (or neighborhood) health centers in America today. Such centers can be traced back to LBJ's Great Society; in total, they currently serve an estimated 16 million low-income and/or uninsured patients nationwide.

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