Hospital and Community Health Center Partner to Save and Expand Red Hook Primary Care

NEW YORK, NY – A partnership involving a hospital’s sale of a primary care facility to a community health center network is preserving and expanding vital primary care services in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood.  The Joseph P. Addabbo Family Health Center has purchased South Brooklyn Health Center (SBHC) from New York Methodist Hospital (NYM).  Addabbo will add an array of services to the facility, and expects to increase visit volume from 18,000 visits to 25,000 visits within three years. 

Purchase of the facility was facilitated with $1.125 million in financing from the Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC).  Through referral agreements between NYM and Addabbo, patients at the health center will continue to have ready access to the broad array of health services at the hospital.

“NYM has been providing top quality health care services to the community for more than 15 years.  We look for the same commitment to quality from our partners,” said Mark J. Mundy, President  & CEO of NYM. “When we were exploring ways to preserve and expand primary care services in Red Hook, having Addabbo operate the South Brooklyn Health Center made perfect sense.” 

The move is a sort of homecoming for Addabbo’s leadership. Peter Nelson, CEO of the Joseph P. Addabbo Family Health Center, and Alfonso Yu Chan, MD, Addabbo’s Chief Medical Officer, worked at SBHC over 20 years ago. A network of Federally Qualified Health Centers, Addabbo has experience with rapid expansion of primary care facilities. After acquiring the St. Dominic Health Center in Jamaica, Queens from the Caritas Health System in Queens in 2009, visit volume rose by 400% in one year. 

“We are thrilled to be able to provide health care to Brooklyn’s Red Hook community after all of these years,” said Dr. Nelson.  “The community has changed, but it still needs access to a full range of health services.  Together with the exemplary services offered by New York Methodist Hospital, that’s what we’re going to provide.”

“Health care in Brooklyn and around New York is rapidly changing, and providers have to forge new partnerships that put the community first.  NYM and Addabbo came together to do just that,” said Ronda Kotelchuck, CEO of PCDC, which provides affordable financing and technical assistance to strengthen primary care capacity in underserved communities.  “We are delighted we were able to provide resources to help preserve SBHC and expand vital community health services in Red Hook.” 

The South Brooklyn Health Center in Red Hook was established in 1968 and has been operated by NYM since 1997. The two-story, 12,000 square foot medical office building was a former movie theater built in the early 1950s. SBHC has historically provided approximately 18,000 visits for 5,000 patients annually.  Addabbo projects an increase in visit volume to about 25,000 by reconfiguring administrative offices into exam rooms and improving patient flow. Along with basic adult primary care services, pediatrics, and HIV/AIDS care currently being offered, Addabbo will provide OB/GYN, dental, podiatric, ophthalmologic and endocrinology services.  They will also add 16 exam rooms, for a total of 26, and four dental operatories. The Red Hook community is a federally designated “Primary Care Health Professional Shortage Area.” About 70% of SBHC patients are covered by Medicaid.

About New York Methodist Hospital (NYM; www.nym.org): New York Methodist Hospital, a voluntary, acute-care teaching facility located in Brooklyn’s Park Slope, houses 651 inpatient beds (including bassinets) and provides services to almost 38,000 inpatients each year. The Hospital, founded in 1881, has undergone extensive renovation and modernization over the years.  NYM has Institutes in the following areas: Advanced and Minimally Invasive Surgery, Asthma and Lung Disease; Cancer Care; Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery; Digestive and Liver Disorders; Diabetes and Other Endocrine Disorders; Vascular Medicine and Surgery; Family Care; Neurosciences; Orthopedic Medicine and Surgery and Women’s Health. New York Methodist Hospital is affiliated with the Weill Cornell Medical College and is a member of the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System. For the past six years, NYM has received the Consumer’s Choice Award for Brooklyn. The award, given by the National Research Corporation, recognizes hospitals that rank highest in their Metropolitan Statistical Areas, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.

About Joseph P. Addabbo Family Health Center (www.addabbo.org): The Joseph P. Addabbo Family Health Center is a Federally Qualified Community Health Center established in 1987 to provide comprehensive health care services to the poor, medically indigent and/or medically underserved population residing in Queens, New York. The Health Center is licensed by the State of New York as an Article 28 Diagnostic and Treatment Center (DT+C) and recently received certification as a NCQA Level 3 medical home.