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Senator Bruno discussed the importance of treating people who suffer from eating disorders during today's media event at Albany Medical Center. |
Partnership Among Albany Med, Bellevue Woman's Hospital & Four Winds Hospital
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno today announced that Albany Medical College, along with its partners, Bellevue Woman's Hospital in Niskayuna and Four Winds Hospital in Saratoga, have been selected by the State Department of Health as a Comprehensive Care Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders. The hospitals will receive a total of $500,000 in State funds to develop a comprehensive local program to treat people with eating disorders.
"Albany Med, Bellevue and Four Winds represent the perfect combination of expertise, patient care and services to treat people who suffer from eating disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and binge eating," Senator Bruno said. "Since I first put forward the proposal to create these centers throughout the State, the goal was to assure people with an eating disorder and their families that they wouldn�t have to travel out of State to find help for what often is a physically and emotionally destructive lifetime battle.
"Treating people with eating disorders can be difficult because these conditions involve a wide range of needs and professional disciplines," Senator Bruno said. "These outstanding health care providers will be able to offer a comprehensive system of care to those who are suffering and their families so they can find the help and hope that they so desperately need."
"With eating disorders the cause of approximately 500 patient visits to Albany Medical Center last year alone, the need for a comprehensive and integrated program to effectively treat those in need is evident," said James J. Barba, Chairman of the Board of Directors, President and Chief Executive Officer of Albany Medical Center. "We are grateful to Governor Pataki and Senator Bruno for understanding the needs of these patients and their families and providing the necessary resources to fuel this collaborative care enterprise between Albany Medical Center, Four Winds Saratoga and Bellevue Woman's Hospital."
"This eating disorder grant will allow Bellevue Woman's Hospital to partner with other organizations to provide comprehensive services to address this pressing public health care issue," said Anne Saile, President and CEO of Bellevue Woman's Hospital. "We are extremely proud to have been selected to be a pioneer in this state-of-the-art initiative."
"We are very pleased to have the opportunity to dramatically improve services for people with eating disorders throughout the northeastern part of New York State," said Dr. Robert Greenbaum of Four Winds Hospital. "We would like to commend Senator Bruno and his staff for recognizing the need to improve services for people with eating disorders and developing the legislation to create the Comprehensive Care Center for Eating Disorders. With this grant from the Department of Health, we will be better able to enhance and coordinate services and train people throughout the region in becoming experts at treating patients with eating disorders."
Albany Medical Center consists of one of the state's largest teaching hospitals, the Albany Medical Center Hospital, and one of the nation's oldest private medical schools, the Albany Medical College. Four Winds Saratoga provides a broad range of Inpatient and Outpatient Mental Health Treatment Services for children, adolescents and adults. Bellevue Woman's Hospital is one of only two nonprofit specialty hospitals in the United States concentrating on health services for women.
Senator Bruno sponsored legislation, signed into law last year by Governor Pataki, that authorizes the State Commissioner of Health to identify "Comprehensive Care Centers of Excellence for Eating Disorders," to treat those suffering from eating disorders. The law requires that the centers provide individual health and psychosocial services, inpatient medical and surgical treatment, rehabilitation and psychiatric care, residential treatment, case management, and community education including information and referral services and prevention and research activities.
In addition to the Albany Med partnership, two other Centers have qualified for $500,000 State grants to establish Comprehensive Care Centers of Excellence for eating disorders: Park Ridge Hospital with Golisano Children�s Hospital at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester and the New York-Presbyterian Hospital with New York Psychiatric Institute in New York City and Schneider Children�s Hospital in New Hyde Park.
Albany Med, Bellevue and Four Winds have worked very closely with the two other centers that have been funded; one in the metropolitan New York area and one in the Rochester area. They have a firm commitment to collaborate in all of the training functions, the sharing of resources and knowledge, and developing a research base that will allow them to evaluate the impact of the care that they are providing.
Eating disorders are a growing problem in the United States, affecting between 5 and 10 million individuals each year. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), one in every 200 women suffers from anorexia and the mortality rate among people with the disease is estimated to be about 12 times higher than the average death rate due to all other causes of death for females aged 15 to 24 in the general population.
The cost of treating an individual with an eating disorder can be extraordinary. Currently, there is no generally accessible system in New York for the comprehensive and integrated treatment of eating disorder patients, nor is there a general mechanism for community education, prevention and coordinated research activities.
Additionally, the law requires insurers to cover treatments provided by state-identified eating disorder centers and to make flexible reimbursement arrangements between the insurer and the comprehensive care centers.
The law also establishes a State grant program to facilitate the development and operation of comprehensive care centers. A special State account has been established for the funds. Any source may contribute to the account. Also, New York State's HCRA public health and mental health allocations of $1 million have been deposited into the Eating Disorder grant program account for community education, prevention and research.
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