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Montefiore Medical Center Adds North Division

Former Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center Assets Acquired

Move Enhances Delivery of High Quality, Compassionate Healthcare to Community As Care and Services Continue

Montefiore Medical Center, one of New York City’s largest healthcare systems, today announced it has completed its acquisition of most of the assets of Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center (OLM). As a result of this acquisition, the former OLM becomes the North Division of Montefiore Medical Center.

The acquisition makes Montefiore a 1,491-bed academic medical center employing more than 16,000 associates serving the two million residents of the Bronx and Westchester County. There are no immediate plans for service changes and patient care will continue uninterrupted.

“We are enhancing the availability of high-quality, innovative healthcare and vital services in the Bronx and providing resources for our patients and the communities we serve,” said Steven M. Safyer, MD, President and CEO, Montefiore Medical Center.

“This preserves a location for healthcare delivery that the surrounding community has relied on for many years,” said Dr. Safyer.

Local residents now will have access to an even greater number of healthcare services in many more Montefiore locations throughout the Bronx and nearby Westchester.

“This is great news for the community,” said Congressman Charles B. Rangel, Chairman, House Ways and Means Committee. “At a time when people are increasingly worried about their healthcare options, local residents can rest assured that they are not just keeping services close to home, but are also getting the additional resources and management team of Montefiore Medical Center, one of our nation’s finest medical institutions.”

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The Lost Supermarket: A Breed in Need of Replenishment

Even Kings and Queens are facing their own food crisis.

Kings and Queens Counties, that is.

A continuing decline in the number of neighborhood supermarkets has made it harder for millions of New Yorkers to find fresh and affordable food within walking distance of their homes, according to a recent city study. The dearth of nearby supermarkets is most severe in minority and poor neighborhoods already beset by obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

According to the food workers union, only 550 decently sized supermarkets — each occupying at least 10,000 square feet — remain in the city.

In one corner of southeast Queens, four supermarkets have closed in the last two years. Over a similar period in East Harlem, six small supermarkets have closed, and two more are on the brink, local officials said. In some cases, the old storefronts have been converted to drug stores that stand to make money coming and going — first selling processed foods and sodas, then selling medicines for illnesses that could have been prevented by a better diet.

The supermarket closings — not confined to poor neighborhoods — result from rising rents and slim profit margins, among other causes. They have forced residents to take buses or cabs to the closest supermarkets in some areas. Those with cars can drive, but the price of gasoline is making some think twice about that option. In many places, residents said the lack of competition has led to rising prices in the remaining stores.

The residents of the Ingersoll Houses in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, have been without their local supermarket since last year, when it was razed along with a strip of stores and restaurants to make room for new housing and retail developments. What used to be a quick jaunt across the street for Della Dorsett is now a tricky trek, as she maneuvers her electric wheelchair several blocks uphill along Myrtle Avenue, returning home with plastic bags dangling from handles and nestled between her feet.

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Montefiore is ‘Keeping Kids Healthy’ in the Bronx 

Keeping Kids Healthy Children’s Health Fair 2008 to Focus on Wellness and Safety

WHAT:

For families with children 12 years old and younger, the themes for this year’s Keeping Kids Healthy Children’s Health Fair 2008 are: wellness promotion, health education, and safety and community. This FREE, fun-filled afternoon is sponsored by The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, Mosholu-Montefiore Community Center and HIP Health Plan of New York. While offering an afternoon of entertainment, games and refreshments, important health education and health screenings will be provided.

Great visual opportunities

The Children’s Health Fair will include:

Child Health History I.D. Cards and Fingerprinting

Asthma and Diabetes Information

Nutritional Information

Medication Safety

Hearing and Vision Screenings

NYPD Representatives

FDNY Representatives

Face Painting and Activities

WHEN:

Sunday June 1, 2008

Noon - 3PM (Rain or Shine)

WHERE:

Mosholu-Montefiore Community Center

Corner of East Gun Hill Road and DeKalb Avenue

Bronx, NY

Keeping Kids Healthy Children’s Health Fair 2008 is open to children ages 12 and under who are accompanied by an adult.

SOURCE: PRNewsWire.com

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Bronx Bodega Owners Receive Free Health Screenings

The New York Presbyterian Hospital’s Ambulatory Care Network sponsored free health screenings for Bronx bodega owners and their families on Thursday.

Dozens of owners came out to take advantage of the offer.

“The reason why we’re targeting ‘bodegueros’ is because they’re a population that tends not to go and get their health care on a timely basis,” said Andres Nietto of New York Presbyterian.

“They usually wait until it’s far advanced or it’s too late, and many of them use the emergency room as their primary care. So we’re trying to target populations that usually don’t get care, and bringing the hospital sort of out to the community,” continued Nietto.

The free screenings included cholesterol tests, blood pressure checks, and testing for diabetes.

SOURCE: NY1.com

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50,000 in the Bronx may be diabetic; many remain undiagnosed

Some 50,000 Bronxites are walking around with diabetes - and they don’t know it.

With Diabetes Awareness Month underway, that’s the estimate for the disease, which claims the highest rate of victims here than in any other borough.

“In a place like the Bronx, everybody knows someone who has the advanced complications of diabetes,” said Dr. Charles Nordin, professor of medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and chairman of medicine at Jacobi Medical Center.

Nordin said anxiety over such complications as blindness, heart disease and amputation from poor circulation is partly responsible for the estimated high number of undiagnosed cases.

The estimate is from the city’s 2004 Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which found 3.8% of the adult population - about 207,000 people citywide - had undiagnosed diabetes.

But early detection, exercise, improved diet, medications and monitoring of blood-sugar levels are critical to delay or avoid the complications of diabetes.

“There are very effective treatments to prevent the complications,” Nordin said. “It’s very important to get out the message that diabetes is not a hopeless condition.”

In a 2003 study of screenings at Bronx churches, community centers, shelters and streetcorners, Nordin and colleagues found that 3 to 5%of about 800 people tested had undiagnosed diabetes. A 2006 survey of 1,000 patients at Jacobi found an estimated 6% were likely to have undiagnosed diabetes.

Besides fear, Nordin said barriers to diagnosis include not being aware of the early signs, such as frequent urination, extreme thirst, hunger and exhaustion, and no routine screening.

“It’s a very slow-developing disease,” said Carol Stockert, director of chronic illness management at the North Bronx Healthcare Network. “You don’t just wake up one morning and have diabetes. If you start to see any of these symptoms you need to go and see your doctor.”

The Bronx has a high prevalence of risk factors for diabetes, including the city’s highest rates of obesity, which is linked to the illness, and large black and Hispanic populations, which have a higher incidence of the disease.

In the South Bronx, where those risk factors are the highest, the city health department has launched several initiatives to prevent and manage the illness, such as free exercise classes at recreation centers, working with bodega owners to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables, and raising awareness.

“If you don’t know you have the disease, you may not change your diet, you may not exercise,” said Dr. Shadi Chamady, director of the health department’s diabetes prevention and control program.

SOURCE: NY Daily News

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