23 Organizations Win Grants to Improve Medical Outcomes of People Living With HIV Disease
Making Prevention, Health Care, Support Services Work Together
ALBANY, N.Y. (May 07, 2010) - More than $8 million in grants has been awarded to 23 health care organizations to improve medical outcomes of people living with HIV disease, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) announced today.
Grantees must integrate quality HIV prevention, primary care and supportive services that recognize HIV as a lifelong chronic disease. "The AIDS epidemic is changing," State Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines, M.D., said. "HIV infection is a chronic disease and needs to be treated that way by the medical community and the patients themselves. We need to expand routine testing as part of primary care, engage patients in their own care and treatment, help them adhere to complex antiretroviral therapies, and prevent further transmission of infection."
New York State continues to be the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As of the end of 2007, almost 125,000 New Yorkers were living with HIV/AIDS, and more than 100,000 had died of AIDS. Despite increased use of medication therapies, HIV incidence and transmission remains unacceptably high. In addition, recent data suggest that late diagnosis (an AIDS diagnosis made within one year of the initial HIV diagnosis) may be as high as 35 percent statewide. More than one-third of New Yorkers – approximately 45,000 people – who know their HIV/AIDS status may not have received HIV-related primary care during the past year.
Humberto Cruz, Director of DOH's AIDS Institute, noted that preventing further HIV transmission is vital to arresting the epidemic. "Community health care providers can help reduce the overall rate of HIV infection through effective prevention services to those already infected with HIV and routine screening for their general patient population," he said. "Identifying new HIV infection as early as possible and achieving viral suppression with effective antiretroviral regimens also contribute to reduce the risk of transmission."
Additionally, almost 75 percent of the people living with HIV/AIDS in New York State are 40 years of age or older. This means that as a chronic disease, HIV is increasingly overlapping with other chronic diseases in this aging population, and the medical management of HIV and other chronic diseases becomes more complicated. Care coordination across medical specialties and services, as well as comprehensive programs that address high-risk behaviors for HIV transmission and risk factors for other chronic diseases, are urgently needed.
Programs were selected to receive funding to improve medical outcomes among people living with HIV disease through the increased availability of integrated quality HIV prevention, primary care and supportive services.
Programs funded to provide HIV primary care services within a community health setting that also provides general care to the public include:
| Central New York and NY Penn | |
|---|---|
| Arnot Ogden Medical Center | $495,562 |
| St. Elizabeth's Family Medical Center | $214,868 |
| United Health Services Hospitals | $339,108 |
| Finger Lakes | |
| Anthony L. Jordan Health Center | $400,000 |
| Long Island | |
| Nassau Health Care Corp. | $202,252 |
| Suffolk County Department of Health | $451,607 |
| Lower Hudson Valley | |
| St. John's Riverside Hospital | $400,000 |
| Westchester Medical Center | $387,926 |
| Mid-Hudson Valley | |
| Greater Hudson Valley Family Health Center | $279,408 |
| Hudson River Health Care | $285,600 |
| Middletown Community Health Center | $399,210 |
| New York City – Bronx | |
| Community Healthcare Network | $320,000 |
| Institute for Family Health | $456,105 |
| Jacobi Medical Center (NYCHHC) | $400,000 |
| New York City – Brooklyn | |
| East New York Diagnostic and Treatment Center (NYCHHC) | $400,000 |
| Housing Works | $346,200 |
| Wyckoff Heights Medical Center | $400,000 |
| New York City – Manhattan | |
| Callen-Lorde Community Health Center | $393,023 |
| Village Health Center | $395,060 |
| William F. Ryan Community Health Center | $400,000 |
Programs funded to provide HIV primary care within a community health setting whose core mission is providing care for HIV/AIDS patients include:
| Hudson Valley | |
|---|---|
| Albany Medical College in Kingston | $200,000 |
| Finger Lakes | |
| Community Health Care Network, d/b/a AIDS Community Health Center | $350,000 |
| Western New York | |
| AIDS Community Services of Western New York | $350,000 |
