Oak Street Health is renovating the former CVS Pharmacy building at the corner of Second and Euclid avenues on the city’s north side, with the new clinic scheduled to open later this year.

The Business Record corresponded via email with Dr. Michele Mitchell, executive medical director at Oak Street Health, and talked with Tammy George of Columbus, Ohio-based architect Moody Nolan Inc. to learn more about the project.

Here are five things you need to know about Oak Street Health and its move to the former CVS Pharmacy building at 215 Euclid Ave. CVS closed the store in March 2023.

1. Oak Street Health’s mission is to offer value-based care that is focused on quality of care and not volume of services. Using this model, Oak Street believes it is helping to address rising health care costs and poor health outcomes. It focuses on and invests in preventative care and other services, including behavioral health, social health support and Medicare education classes under one roof.

2. Oak Street Health focuses on health care needs of older adults and breaking down barriers to receiving quality care. The company strategically places its clinics in neighborhoods that lack access to health care.

3. This will be the second Oak Street Health clinic in Des Moines. It opened its first Des Moines clinic at 4841 S.E. 14th St. in November. It has one other Iowa clinic in Davenport. In total, Oak Street Health has more than 200 clinics in 25 states serving more than 230,000 patients. A site in Cedar Rapids is also under development.

4. The city of Des Moines has issued several construction permits for subcontracting work for the project in recent months, including a permit that valued the remodeling at $1.8 million. That permit was issued in November. Work is expected to be complete and the clinic ready to open in the second half of this year.

5. CVS Health acquired Oak Street Health in May 2023. According to Healthcare Finance, the transaction was valued at about $10.6 billion. CVS financed the deal with $5 billion from a term loan and existing cash and available resources. Oak Street Health will operate as a multipayer primary care provider as part of CVS Health. Leaders of CVS and Oak Street Health said the acquisition will reduce health care costs and improve outcomes, particularly for patients in underserved communities. More than half of Oak Street Health’s patients are facing risks in housing, food or isolation, leaders said.