Oak Street Health makes healthier happen
Oak Street Health provides older adults like Joy with personalized primary care and mental health support from an experienced team that includes doctors, nurse practitioners and social workers. As part of CVS Health®, we are building a world of health around every individual, creating a connected health experience and providing patients with dedicated care they can trust.
About Oak Street Health
Oak Street Health, a CVS Health® company, specializes in providing comprehensive primary care for older adults.
Healthier happens together™
At CVS Health®, we connect people to the care they need, put medicine and wellness within reach, and drive greater affordability, simplicity, and convenience across all we do.
I'm Joy Schumacher and I'm 66 years old. I had diabetes and I have trouble controlling it. And so, the doctor I went to always gave me a really, really hard time and everything. And, we never worked on how to solve it. And I wanted to try something different. And then I heard about Oak Street Health. And I was impressed the first time I came in because they really listened to you.
Here, they spend the time with you. They ask all questions when you're, you know, like wanting to know where you're at. And, I should thank them very much because I don't think I'd be sitting in this chair. But they actually found out that I had a 99% blockage in my main artery in my heart. I had no idea.
I had no symptoms. I just thought it was so cool, like I said, that, you know, I wouldn't be sitting here if it wasn't for them. My other doctor, she’d blame everything on the diabetes. Oh, I was feeling - I had some chest pain. You know, I'm feeling this. Here they don't do that. They look farther. What I love about Oak Street is that they take care of my body, my psychological thinking, and all that.
And I love that they do it together. And they really do work together. When I came in, I was really sad. They felt that I was just really, really depressed. And so they wanted to make sure that I was okay. And so they gave me someone to talk to. I used to beat myself up all the time.
I don't do that anymore. I don't go, “Oh, you're so stupid.” It might say I’m silly. She's helped me to be able to that and really just accept myself of who I am. I think that's helping me to appreciate my life. I want to be healthier this year. I want to start working on my exercise, and, because it's going to help my heart and help me so that I can go out and run with my granddaughter.
Sometimes there's two important questions you can ask yourself, and that is, are you just surviving or you're thriving? And so I feel that I'm thriving. And I had never had that before.