Gordon Atlantic Development Corporation works with Mt. Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church to Develop Next Generation East Harlem Medical Center with Aim to Reduce Healthcare Disparities

    NEW YORK, NY, July 13, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Gordon Atlantic Development Corporation, led by Dr. William Hyatt Gordon, LEED-AP, has worked closely with its client, The Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, represented by Reverend Jo-An Owings to develop 8,000 SF of next-generation medical space in a proposed two (2) story addition that is planned to be a United States Green Building Council - Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (USGBC-LEED) certifiable-space. Liro Architects & Planners has provided architectural services, under the direction of Mr. Murray Levi, AIA, LEED-AP. Ms. Carol Ann Flint of Besen & Associates is the exclusive agent marketing the proposed 8,000 SF of medical space, which the developer will build to suit and/or subdivide. The site is located at 1765 Madison Avenue, New York, New York, 10029, or on the Southeast corner of the intersection of 116th Street and Madison Avenue. There are 1,734 hospital beds within a 1.5 mile radius. These facilities include the Metropolitan Hospital Center, Mount Sinai Hospital, and North General Hospital. The site is located within Community Board 11, and at any given time 73% of residents, or approximately 78,913 have some type of insurance. Within Community Board 11, over 44% of the residents or approximately, 47,564 individuals receive Medicaid.

The facility is located in a United States Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) for Primary Care, Mental Health, and Dentistry. HPSAs may be designated as having a shortage of primary medical care, dental or mental health providers. Within the United States, as of March 31, 2009, there were 6,080 Primary Care HPSAs with 65 million people living in them. A shortage of 16,585 practitioners would be required to meet their need for primary care providers (a population to practitioner ratio of 2,000:1).

The site is also located within a Medically Underserved Area (MUA), and a Medically Underserved Population (MUP) Area. Typically, MUA/MUP promote the advancement of larger multiple-specialty community health centers, because recipients of Community Health Center (CHC) grant funds are legislatively required to serve areas or populations designated by the Secretary of Health and Human Services as medically underserved. Grants for the planning, development, or operation of community health centers under section 330 of the Public Health Service Act are available only to centers which serve designated MUAs or MUPs. However, certain programs, such as the "Doctors Across New York" initiative. This initiative sponsored by the New York State Department of Health, which includes the Physician Practice Support Program, the Physician Loan Repayment Program and four (4) others is designed to improve access to quality healthcare in the state. The program encourages physicians to begin practice in underserved communities in New York State and includes up to $100,000 in practice support funding over 2 years in exchange for a 2-year service obligation.

Gordon Atlantic Development Corporation and Mt. Zion AME have chosen a course in medical space development that goes beyond green, and into public policy through the creation of a facility that responds to a the area population within the existing guidelines of United States Department of Health and Human Services - Healthy People 2010, and with an eye on developing a clinic that meets the goals of Healthy People 2020. A major emphasis of Healthy People 2020 is the advancement of electronic health records (HER), and healthcare information technology (HIT).

There is also an emphasis on further ending healthcare disparities, especially geographic disparities. A survey conducted by the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine of stomach and kidney cancer patients in Los Angeles, California, revealed that those who were diagnosed in a late stage of disease, when cancer is harder to treat successfully, were likely to be older, living in an unsafe neighborhood and traveling at least 45 minutes to get to the doctor. Even in dense New York City, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYCHMH) has linked disparities in healthcare to poverty and race. Poor New Yorkers, as well as African-American and Hispanic-Americans bear a disproportionate burden the death rate. The poorest New Yorkers are 4 times more likely to report poor overall health than the wealthiest, and have an 8-year shorter lifespan. Quality medical facilities must be available to leading practitioners, and organizations able to serve in HPSAs and address disparity issues. This is a principal goal of the Mt. Zion medical development.

The Mt. Zion AME site is significant in other ways too; the facility is located in New York State's 15th Congressional District, represented by Congressman Charlie Rangel, who has led the way in legislative innovation for healthcare reform. Incalculable innovation has been fostered by both Rangel's office, as well as under his guidance of the House Ways and Means Committee. Beginning in 2007, a new conversation began with several physicians groups, but prominently with the American Academy of Family Physicians, for the development a "Patient-Centered Medical Home" (PCMH) primary care clinic model. The notion of this type of clinic solution to address primary care has been embraced as an asset within 2009 healthcare reform initiatives.

The current healthcare payment system values medical procedures more highly than health maintenance and disease prevention through patient collaboration. The medical home concept moves payment towards a greater emphasis on physicians and mid-level practitioners collaborating with patients to ensure health. Information technology is paramount to the medical home model for a wide range of issues including e-visit consultations, chronic disease management, and electronic prescribing to local pharmacies. Under the PCMH model, medical service delivery points will have interactive web sites moving patient self management to new levels. The patient can access resources for preventative advice and chronic illness management, test results might be retrieved, medical records accessed, medication refills could be processed, office visits scheduled, surveys completed non urgent questions could be answered by the physician online.

The Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC) represents 50 million American workers and over 300,000 physicians. The collaborative is a coalition of major employers, consumer groups, organizations representing primary care physicians, and other stakeholders who have joined to advance the patient-centered medical home. The Collaborative believes that the patient-centered medical home will improve the health of patients and the healthcare delivery system. In order to accomplish this goal, employers, consumers, physicians and payers have agreed that it is essential to support a better model of compensating physicians. Compensation under the PCMH model would incorporate enhanced access and communication, improve coordination of care, expand administrative and quality innovations and promote active patient and family involvement.

Physician organizations that are endorsers of the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative for the establishment of PCMH include: The American Academy of Family Physicians; The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine; The American Academy of Neurology; The American Academy Pediatrics; The American College of Cardiology; The American College of Chest Physicians; The American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians; The American College of Osteopathic Internists; The American College of Physicians; The American Geriatrics Society; The American Medical Directors Association; The American Society of Addiction Medicine; The American Society of Clinical Oncology; The Society for Adolescent Medicine; The Society of Critical Care Medicine; and The Society of General Internal Medicine. Representatives from seven of the nation's most prominent health benefits companies - Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, CIGNA, Humana, MVP Healthcare, United Healthcare, and WellPoint, Inc. - have joined in support of patient-care improvements led by the PCPCC. Insurance companies have been instrumental in gaining large employers to convert to the PCMH. Employer leaders include IBM. Walgreens and other national pharmacies have also joined in the collaboration.

The Mt. Zion AME medical space development is a vision for the nation, in that it hopes to serve as a model for other African Methodist Episcopal churches able to develop quality next-generation medical space within their own communities able to reduce healthcare disparities, especially geographic health care disparities. However, Mt. Zion AME has a higher vision for its project that reaches beyond the African Methodist Episcopal Church and to other dominations, community based groups, affordable housing developers, planners, as well as economic development specialists and that is the incorporation of a development vision that serves the community around the site in a significant manner. Greater interaction needs to be fostered and maintained amongst government stakeholders, the medical community, community organizations, and places of worship as well as developers to streamline and prioritize healthcare development in a way that directly impacts healthcare disparities within the nation.

Mt. Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church:
The Reverend Jo-An Owings - [email protected]

Architecture:
Mr. Murray Levi, AIA, LEED-AP - [email protected]

Exclusive Agent
Ms. Carol Ann Flint - [email protected]

Investor Relations/Finance:
Ms. Jocelyn L. Yambao - [email protected]

For Information about Gordon Atlantic, or William Hyatt Gordon:
[email protected]

Gordon Atlantic Development Corporation pursues both private client and investment-driven real estate development projects in France, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Principal United States' markets include Gordon Atlantic Development Corporation's home market, New York, as well as metropolitan Miami, and metropolitan Washington. Private client projects include: hospitals and healthcare facilities; museums, theatres, and economic development projects; projects for the environment, projects for humanity, as well as projects for not-for-profit organizations. Investment projects are focused on hotels, convention centres, media studios, golf courses, ski areas, and the like.

Source: Gordon Atlantic Development Corporation
Website: http://www.gordonatlantic.com

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