On their path to becoming Brooklyn’s a largest health care provider, Maimoindes Medical Center, 4802 10th Avenue in Borough Park, has learned the importance of changing with its ever fluctuating immigrant base of its catchment area.
And it is this ability of changing with the local community that the hospital this week inked a partnership deal with the Coalition of Asian-American Independent Practices Association (CAIPA) that will benefit the communities being served by both organizations.
“Health care is about dealing with change and while we recognize health care has changed in technology, it’s ultimately about human contact,” said Kenneth Gibbs, President and CEO of Maimonides Medical Center.
“It’s about services and about community, and Maimonides has an incredibly long history of serving the community. It’s who we are and to succeed in that going forward, it has to do with dealing with the constant change of who is here and successfully building those relationships. To build a culture of relating to the community and to the providers, we feel it is critical to tightly embrace with the physician community to build that relationship with the community at large. So we are are grateful CAIPA exists and came to the table to build a partnership. We believe very strongly that the Asian community in this part of Brooklyn is the future. Growth statistics have been proved it and we in Maimonides want to grow in the same way,” he added.
Gibbs noted that 1,000 of the medical center’s 6,000 employees are Asian and that 50 of the physicians are Asian, and that 12 percent of the center’s patients speak a form of Chinese dialect.
Under the agreement CAIPA and Maimonides will jointly establish an after-hours EXPRESS CARE CENTER office in which Maimonides will provide basic medical services after regular working hours for the benefit of CAIPA-affiliated physicians and their patients.
This Express Care Center will ensure consistency of care: patients seen after-hours will remain part of the CAIPA network and continue to have their own physicians. CAIPA will provide all of the administrative support and record-keeping for the site. The hospital will provide specialty physicians during normal daytime hours, bringing world-class expertise to a community-based setting.
In addition to collaborating on the Express Care Center, CAIPA will help Maimonides Medical Center better understand the cultural issues that have an impact on the healthcare of the Asian-American community. Culturally-sensitive content will be created for the Maimonides website and for printed materials that are distributed in the community, with the guidance of CAIPA staff. Maimonides Medical Center will design a series of continuing medical education events on emerging and innovative clinical topics of interest for CAIPA affiliated physicians, and sponsor an annual clinical conference.
This patient-focused alliance will redefine the delivery of care to patients throughout the region.
“After meeting with the Maimonides leadership and physicians, we knew we shared a vision of better serving the Asian-American community, while helping our physicians stay current with the growing demand for their services,’ said Dr. George C. K. Liu, President and CEO of CAIPA.
Liu said that CAIPA considers Brooklyn the most important growing market for Chinese-Americans in New York City.
“There are 537,000 Chinese-Americans living in New York City, and we have 205,000 living in this area. Brooklyn has the fastest growing Chinese community in all of New York,” he said. “This is a real opportunity to be part of the best hospital in Brooklyn, rated one of top for cardiovascular care in the state so this is a very big honor and it will be great for all of Brooklyn.
The clinical alliance between the Medical Center and CAIPA physicians will provide patients with the full array of primary and specialty care services, right in the community. The two organizations will develop best practices and training protocols to ensure the highest quality care in all settings.
In addition to collaborating on the Express Care Center, CAIPA will help Maimonides Medical Center better understand the cultural issues that have an impact on the healthcare of the Asian-American community. Culturally-sensitive content will be created for the Maimonides website and for printed materials that are distributed in the community, with the guidance of CAIPA staff.
Maimonides Medical Center will also design a series of continuing medical education events on emerging and innovative clinical topics of interest for CAIPA affiliated physicians, and sponsor an annual clinical conference.
For more information on CAIPA, please visit www.caipa.net. For more information on Maimonides Medical Center, please visit www.maimonidesmed.org.
