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The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation will receive $28.1 million in healthcare grants from New York State to expand primary care capacity in the borough of Queens, more closely align substance abuse services in the Bronx with primary and preventive healthcare, and support HHC’s ambitious restructuring strategy to streamline and consolidate services and make the delivery of care more efficient and cost-effective.

HHC President Alan D. Aviles joined Governor David Paterson at a news conference in Queens on Sept. 25 to announce the grants, funded under the state’s Health Care Efficiency and Affordability Law (HEAL NY).

“We are grateful to Governor Paterson and Commissioner Daines for making these highly targeted and strategic capital investments to support much needed expansions of primary care for patients and enable us to undertake restructuring for greater efficiency," Aviles said.

HHC and its Queens Hospital Center, Elmhurst Hospital Center and Lincoln Hospital and Mental Health Center were among more than 50 healthcare facilities and systems around the state who received a total of $436 million in HEAL NY awards.

“New York health care centers are known for their expertise in patient care, and I am proud to announce these grants to institutions that are creating more effective and more efficient ways of caring for those in need,” Governor Paterson said.

“Thanks to these grants, our health care facilities will get much needed technology upgrades that will save them money, more of our hospitals will be able to join forces to improve patient care and our long-term care system will be able to provide better service to the growing population of aging New Yorkers and New Yorkers with disabilities.”

HHC will receive $28.1 million in HEAL NY grants to fund the following projects:

• $18.4 million to the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation ?to regionalize intensive cardiology services and vascular surgery in its Queens Health Care Network, which includes Elmhurst and Queens Hospitals. Intensive cardiovascular services will now be regionalized and expanded at Elmhurst Hospital Center – which will receive $7.4 million – to facilitate greater efficiency and effectiveness in cardiac care. The regionalization will also expand and concentrate vascular-related care at Queens Hospital, which will receive $8.5 million. Another $2.5 million will support HHC's plans to use this project as a model for restructuring, consolidating and regionalizing other operations across the corporation.
  
• $4 million to Queens Hospital Center ? to significantly expand the geriatric outpatient clinic space and create a more robust geriatric services program; to build a discreet geriatric clinic in the South Queens Multi-Service Center in South Jamaica; to build a larger labor and delivery suite and expand capacity; to upgrade the OB electronic system used to document and help flow of patients through labor and delivery care; to add five additional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit beds for high-risk newborns.
  
• $4 million to Elmhurst Hospital Center – to help complete the construction of a new $14.5 million Woman’s Health Pavilion to accommodate the dramatically increased need for outpatient services for women in western Queens. The two-story, 21,500 square-foot pavilion will be built on the main campus of the hospital and will house primary care and preventive care, obstetrics and gynecology, and specialty services such as cardiology.
  
• $1.7 million to Lincoln Hospital and Mental Health Center – to relocate its Recovery Center on East 140th Street in the Bronx, which provides comprehensive substance abuse services, to Lincoln’s Segundo Ruiz Belvis Neighborhood Family Health Center. The relocation will allow closer alignment and easier access to the primary and preventive care and specialty services for substance abuse patients who commonly suffer from chronic health conditions.
  

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), is a $6.3 billion integrated healthcare delivery system and the largest municipal healthcare organization in the country. HHC serves 1.3 million New Yorkers every year and nearly 450,000 who are uninsured. HHC provides medical, mental health and substance abuse services through its 11 acute care hospitals, four skilled nursing facilities, six large diagnostic and treatment centers and more than 80 community based clinics. HHC Health and Home Care also provides health services at home for New Yorkers. To learn more about HHC, visit www.nyc.gov/hhc.