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OCR for page 227
COPC in a Hospit~-
Affiliatec! Health Center
Harvey A. HoZzberg
The catchment area of the Sunset Park Family Health Center (SPFHC) of
Lutheran Medical Center (LMC) includes a neighborhood of approximately
100,000 people, predominantly Puerto Rican, medically underserved, living
in deteriorated housing and receiving inferior environmental services when
compared to more affluent neighborhoods within and outside New York
.
_lty-
Prior to 1967 and the beginning of the SPFHC, LMC was a 300-bed
community hospital in a deteriorated physical plant suffering from a poor
financial position, with little hope for the future. LMC was a teaching
hospital, however, and had an excellent, if traditional, attending medical
staff and ran a small Emergency Room (ER) and Out Patient Department
(OPD). It was the tenuous fiscal position of LMC that allowed for an
atmosphere of risk-taking that might not have been as available in a more
stable institution.
Efforts toward community oriented primary care (COPC) really began
in 1966, with an acceptance of the ER's role as the primary care provider
for the residents of Sunset Park, who had little access to more traditional
delivery systems because of economic restraints and scarcity of providers.
In 1966, the ER operated as both an Emergency Service Department and
an "unscheduled general practice unit." It was staffed with salaried attending
physicians, and the leading general practitioner in the area was employed
as director. This individual ultimately developed the first family practice
residency training program in New York City.
The SPFHC began in 1977 as an Office of Economic Opportunity-
227
OCR for page 228
228
PART II: PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
funded neighborhood health center with a Community Board setting policy
and atmosphere. The history of the Community Board's development and
the relationship between the board and the medical center and health center
administration are not the particular subject of this case study. Generally
it followed the ups and downs typical of most such programs until the more
recent past. For about the past 5 years there has been a sharing of goals
and strengthening of credibility, trust, and friendship among board and staff
leadership. The Community Board today is a model of stability and is quite
knowledgeable in the complexities of health care delivery.
Another example of the COPC approach is the operating philosophy of
both LMC and the SPFHC. The medical center has, since 1967, defined
health to include problems of environment, housing sanitation, street lights,
education, zoning, etc. LMC considers itself part of the neighborhood it
serves and continues to offer all its resources (grant writers, engineers,
access to foundation and political offices, etc.) to all legitimate community
groups.
The goals of the SPFHC remain consistent since 1967, even in the face
of fluctuating resources:
1. To provide family centered ambulatory care to the registered popu-
lation and to ensure that the care is comprehensive, continuous, and of
high quality.
2. To provide specialty and support services that are coordinated with
and augment the primary care component.
3. To fuse preventive and therapeutic services in an atmosphere of dig-
nity.
4. To create an interest in, and an opportunity for, employment of
community residents in health-related careers.
5. To implement the concept of maximum feasible community partici-
pation.
Both LMC and the SPFHC have flourished in this atmosphere in spite of
cost containment, waning resources, increasing regulation, and the general
atmosphere of "shrinkage" that has permeated the health industry for the
past several years.
LMC moved into a new physical plant in 1977, and true to its philosophy
it is now located in the most deteriorated part of Sunset Park in a building
that was totally renovated within an abandoned 500,000-square-foot factory.
It is now a 532-bed, primary care hospital with a 30,000-square-foot com-
munity health center located in its core. The development of this unique
plant and the combined efforts of staff and community tO bring it tO fruition
are obviously quite interesting and have been the subject of a number of
articles, but the limits of time restrict further discussion in this case study.
OCR for page 229
COPC in cz Hospital-Affiliated Health Center
229
The SPFHC currently has almost 40,000 registered patients, 185,000
physician and dentist visits, more than 300 employees, and a budget ap-
proaching $12 million. Support for the funding of this program now comes
from third-party reimbursement, patient fees, a large Health and Human
Services Section 330 grant, and an integrated network of some 20 smaller
federal, state, local, and private foundation grants. These grants have been
integrated in a manner that establishes one coordinated health delivery
system where neither the patient nor employee has any knowledge of which
grant is paying for the specific care being received or rendered at any point
in the system.
The LMC teaching programs have been vastly improved in the SPFHC
setting. The SPFHC evaluates residents and exposes them to an organized
primary care setting. Recruitment of SPFHC physicians is almost exclusively
from graduating residents, and this has strengthened the medical staff of
the medical and health centers. Cross membership has developed between
the LMC and SPFHC boards of directors, and this, too, has broadened and
strengthened both groups.
The COPC principle that has probably received the least attention thus
far is the use of epidemiologic data for planning purposes. The two most
often used tools are the BCRR and New York City Health Department
statistics. The BCRR data too often, however, are used by Health and
Human Services for program evaluation and too often become an end in
themselves. The goal becomes one of meeting the standards set. The New
York City Health Department data are used after the fact as a tool to
measure success against rather than as a planning tool around which to
develop future programs of concentration.
It is interesting to note, however, that in spite of the obvious inner-city
problems in Sunset Park, recent Health Department statistics indicate a
lower infant mortality in Sunset Park when compared with New York City
(14.8 per 1,000 live births, and 16.9 per 1,000 live births, respectively, in
1977~. Other mortality and morbidity data also strongly indicate the positive
impact of the SPFHC. The fact is, though, that if the staff of the program
concentrate only a little on epidemiologic data, the Community Board
concentrates on it not at all. They review the BCRR to be certain the
program meets the standards and are simply not presented with other health
status indicators. A more epidemiologic approach could be taken using
medical students, public health students, and others. Although the emphasis
may be somewhat askew, the forcing of data gathering by the Bureau of
Community Health Services is at least a beginning and in some respects a
. . .
pioneering approach.
It seems apparent that while the program at SPFHC had most of the
COPC facets, the epidemiologic approach could be cost-effective and cost-
efficient.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
sunset park
