Chicago’s South Side residents now have access to a new sickle cell treatment clinic at Roseland Community Hospital.
On Monday, Roseland held a ribbon-cutting ceremony introducing Dr. Mahoud Mahafzah as the clinic’s board-certified hematologist-oncologist, six years after the clinic’s initial projected launch.
The clinic, located on the hospital’s fourth floor, will operate 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Sickle cell is a blood disorder affecting red blood cells and causing pain and organ damage. It disproportionately affects African Americans patients. Many South Side families lack timely access to care, often relying on emergency departments during a sickle cell pain crisis. Roseland Community Hospital currently primarily serves African Americans patients.
According to the CDC Foundation, the number of physicians trained and willing to treat SCD patients, especially adult patients, is limited. Patients also struggle to find adequate care because untrained health care providers may inaccurately perceive SCD patients as drug-seekers and may doubt their severity of pain. This results in patients experiencing longer wait times to see a doctor and to get pain medication when visiting the emergency department.
Roseland’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Khurram Khan said the new clinic will provide immediate care for patients experiencing sickle cell pain crisis. He says it’s needed because the South Side is known as a “red zone,” meaning high area for sickle cell patients. Until now, he said, treatment options were largely limited to emergency department visits or referrals to a hematologist.
“But here the community really benefits,” Khan said. “With Dr. Mahoud Mahafzah, with the hematologist on staff and running the clinic, we can get patients that are established from our community and fill that gap where they don’t have to go to the ED, not even our ED, and they can get pain treatment right away.”
Khan said he hopes the clinic will reduce emergency room visits and improve follow-up care.
The clinic, serving adolescents and adults ages 16 and older, will initially offer hydration therapy; IV pain management for vaso-occlusive crises; blood transfusions in coordination with the hospital’s blood bank; chelation therapy for chronic iron overload; and comprehensive patient education and support.
“We are able to give IV fluids, blood, pain medication, oxygen and any other treatment options,” he said. “If you have an infection, that could be treated with IV antibiotics. We’re also going to be looking into providing newer immunologic medications that we will try to get on our pharmacy formulary, if possible.”
Khan added that being discharged from the ER is not the same as being discharged from a specialized clinic, where patients can receive the appropriate medication and care plan. ER physicians, he said, are not board-certified hematologists and are not specialists in sickle cell disease.
The clinic was envisioned for a 2019 opening by CEO and President Tim Egan but faced many obstacles. The clinic’s opening was first paused because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 2020 and 2023, the hospital also struggled to recruit key medical staff, including a board-certified hematologist-oncologist to oversee the unit.