Last October, New York Health Works highlighted the formation of a Regional Health Collaborative by New York-Presbyterian Hospital that sought to improve the health of residents in the largely Hispanic Washington Heights-Inwood community. The program, spearheaded by Dr. J. Emilio Carillo, created a network of patient-centered medical homes that linked to other providers and community-based resources. The first phase of the program was a success as it achieved a significant decline in emergency department visits for ambulatory care.
State Sen. Adriano Espaillat recognized the importance of this type of program, especially since it focused on chronic disease: diabetes, asthma, heart disease and depression, of which there are high rates in his community. He wrote an op-ed that ran in El Diario. He is also taking the research results to Albany policymakers, hoping that it can be used as a pilot program for guiding health policy at the state and federal levels. Here is the translated version of the Senator’s op-ed. This is the original version from El Diario.
-Jaime Venditti, 1/5/12