By Ivan Pereira
Southeast Queens may still be lacking in providing the health care needs for residents since Mary Immaculate Hospital closed last year, but the administrators of a revamped medical center in the neighborhood say they are working hard to fill the void.
The Addabbo Family Health Center celebrated last Thursday the first anniversary of its Jamaica location at 114-49 Sutphin Blvd. Since the Rockaway-based entity purchased the former site of St. Dominic Health Center, the number of patients has increased by 500 percent with 150 visits daily and the facility has expanded the number of primary care options, according to its directors.
“This is a community in dire need of primary care and the loss of this health center would have been devastating,” Dr. Peter Nelson, executive director of the Addabbo Family Health Center, said in a statement.
When Caritas, the parent company of Mary Immaculate and St. John’s hospitals, filed for bankruptcy last March, the St. Dominic center, which provided primary care services, was also in danger of closing, according to the Primary Care Development Corp., the nonprofit health advocate group that held the mortgage on the 17,000-square-foot space.
The group then negotiated with state and city leaders and eventually was able to incorporate St. Dominic into the Addabbo Family Health umbrella.
Following the change, the Addabbo administrators sought and received more than $1.6 million in grants and donations from federal and state governments and private corporations to upgrade the center.
The center now offers HIV/AIDS, pediatrics and dental treatment as well as social work care and has hired 20 new professionals.
“What the Addabbo case shows us is that New York doesn’t have nearly enough quality primary care, and that for a relatively small investment, we can bring in good health centers that will improve the health of thousands of patients while reducing unnecessary emergency room visits and lowering crushing health care cost,” Richard F. Daines, commissioner of the state Health Department, said in a statement.
Queens ranks 53rd out of the state’s 62 counties for morbidity, according to the nonprofit health Web site County Health Rankings, and Primary Care Development said the southeast Queens community is ranked third in the city for diabetes cases.
Elected officials, including state Sen. Shirley Huntley (D-Jamaica), said the center was vital to the future of southeast Queens and they encouraged more groups to lend a helping hand.
“I am thrilled that we all came together to save this health center, and even more pleased that it has become such a vital health resource to this underserved community,” she said in a statement.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4546.
