Originally published in the Houston Chronicle on April 6, 2017

Legacy Community Health, the largest system of community-based health care in Texas, will open three new facilities in the Houston area in coming weeks to keep up with growing need, the company said Thursday.

The new additions to the network of health care clinics brings the total to 25 in the region. Legacy served 125,000 patients last year.

On Friday two facilities in the area will open: one in southwest Houston at 6677 Rookin St., formerly a CliniCare site which will expand its primary care services and add behavioral health, and a second in Deer Park, 3430 Center St., a newly constructed site that will offer primary care, behavioral health and obstetric-gynecology.

Then in mid-May, Legacy will move from its current Fifth Ward location to a new 16,000-square-foot facility at 3811 Lyons Ave.

Officials at Legacy said the expansion is needed because of an “unusually high demand for health care in the medically under served parts of Harris County.”

“We’re just trying to keep up,” said Kevin Nix, senior director of communications for Legacy, adding that it is their philosophy that “health care is a right, not a privilege.”