A new Health and Wellness Center at Lincoln Laboratory, where members of the MIT community can receive medical care and also exercise, is scheduled to open in early October.
MIT Medical will use the facility (located in a renovated Building V, which requires no security clearance) as a satellite location for MIT Health Plan members.
"MIT Medical/Lexington will provide convenient, high-quality medical services for Lincoln Laboratory employees and their families, as well as for the many campus, Whitehead and Draper employees and students whose families live closer to Lexington than to Cambridge," said Dr. Arnold N. Weinberg, medical director.
A family nurse practitioner will provide care for adults throughout each weekday. In addition, an internal medicine physician and a pediatrician will be available for several hours each weekday. All specialty and after-hours care will continue to be provided at MIT Medical on campus.
MIT Medical began planning the satellite facility in response to the changing demographics of its patients. When the MIT Health Plan was inaugurated in 1974 for faculty, staff, employees and their families, 18 percent of the membership lived in Cambridge, with another 43 percent in Arlington, Belmont, Brookline, Lexington, Newton, Somerville and Watertown.
Today, fewer MIT employees live in Cambridge or nearby, which makes receiving care at a single Cambridge location less convenient, particularly for employees with families. In addition, the approximately 2,400 MIT employees at Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington have been asking for health care closer to work and home.
Forty-six percent of MIT employees, including about 67 percent of the Institute's faculty, are members of either the Traditional or Flexible MIT Health Plan, for a total of about 4,500 subscribers and 8,700 members (including family members).
MIT Medical/Lexington will be open Monday through Friday except holidays, with hours likely to be 8:30am-5pm. Main access will be through the Wood Street entrance gate to Lincoln Laboratory, where patients will show photo ID and receive directions to the Health and Wellness Center.
The fitness portion of the facility, will be open to Lincoln Laboratory employees and MIT campus employees with a valid athletic card. It will feature a free weight area; a cardiovascular area with treadmills, steppers and life cycles; weight-training machines; and a multipurpose room for classes in yoga, martial arts, aerobics, etc. There will be showers and lockers for day use.
Initial hours of operation for the fitness center will be Monday through Friday, 6am-7pm. Anyone with questions may contact Dan Martin, assistant head of the Department of Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation, at djmartin@mit.edu.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on September 25, 1999.
