Will County Community Health officials honored Dr. Daniel Gutierrez, founder of the Will County Community Health Center on Friday August 11, 2023. Dr. Gutierrez retired from the health center in 2020, after a long career. He was the center’s first medical director in a career that spanned nearly six decades. The honor coincided with National Health Center Week, August 6-12, which celebrates and increases awareness of America’s 1,400 Community Health Centers.
Dr. Gutierrez was born and reared in Joliet after his parents emigrated from Mexico. He went on to get his medical degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago and spent the next 57 years working in internal medicine.
He began his career as a medical missionary in Malawi and then served as a military doctor in Vietnam. After returning to Joliet, he began working at Silver Cross Hospital and was there for three decades, becoming the hospital’s Chief of Medicine.
During the 1970’s Dr. Gutierrez began consulting with the Will County Health Department. During his association there, he helped increase immunizations and decreased STD transmissions.
In the 1990s he advocated for the creation of Will County’s first Community Health Center, which opened in 2003.
Will County Community Health Center CEO Mary Maragos shined a light on Dr. Gutierrez’s prolific career as one marked by “endless service to the community.
“He is responsible for our center playing such a prominent role in providing care for low-income, uninsured, and underinsured residents,” she said.” Because of his efforts, we are at the forefront of local medical facilities that accept everyone, regardless of their ability to pay.”
Last year, the center saw 13,000 patients, the majority of whom were Hispanic. “This is an example of the importance of our mission as visualized by Dr. Gutierrez,” Maragos noted.
The center has adult care, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, ophthalmology, and STD treatment services. Their most in-demand service, according to Maragos, is for dental care.
Dr. Gutierrez has spent his entire career fighting for equal access to quality medical care. From the center’s beginning, he prioritized the development of prenatal care services, among other patient initiatives.
Additional accomplishments included creating more efficient methods of diagnosing high-risk patients, combatting infectious diseases, and creating more comprehensive diabetes care protocols.
Partnering with Loyola Medicine and recruiting volunteer physicians are just two of the innovations he undertook to increase the level of patient care at the center.
“Disease is not a Democratic or a Republican problem,” Dr. Gutierrez said. “Disease attacks everyone, but its impact on those without equal access to medical care is greater. The work of the center is to create an environment where these negative impacts are lessened.”
