News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 4, 2015 

HHC Elmhurst Hospital Center Receives State Grant For Cardiac Arrest Training

HHC Elmhurst Hospital Center Receives State Grant For Cardiac Arrest Training

(Queens, NY – September 3, 2015) Mr. Christopher Constantino, Senior Vice President of the Queens Health Network and Executive Director of Elmhurst Hospital Center of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), announced today that HHC Elmhurst has been selected by New York State to receive $150,000 over the next two years from the Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program to study medical simulation training for cardiac arrest code teams.

Led by Alex Manini, MD, MS, FACMT, FAACT, researchers at Elmhurst, including Suzanne Bentley, MD, MPH, FACEP, will use the state funds to develop a novel curriculum for hospital medical teams responding to cardiac arrests, with the goal of developing training techniques that will lead to better safety and improved outcomes for patients. Cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death with more than 326,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occurring annually in the United States. Ninety percent of people who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests die.

“We are enormously proud to receive this grant from New York State,” said Constantino. “Elmhurst Hospital Center has a reputation for providing outstanding treatment to cardiac arrest patients, and these funds will allow us to expand our team-based approach and provide additional opportunities for physicians to conduct medical research regarding cardiac care that will benefit our community.”

Another New York City public hospitals – HHC Lincoln in the Bronx – also received an award for biomedical education under the program. Overall, 26 hospitals throughout the State were selected to receive a total of $17.2 million.

The Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program was first created in 2000 upon the recommendation of the New York State Council on Graduate Medical Education, an advisory body of medical educators within the New York State Department of Health that provides policy advice relating to medical education and training. Almost $103 million has been awarded since the program’s inception.

The awards are intended to provide funding for teaching hospitals to form research teams focused on a specific topic, disease, or condition to further the development of clinician researchers and give hospitals a foundation from which they can seek additional funding from the federal government to build upon their work. The awards are typically used to train researchers in diverse research fields such as obesity, diabetes, lupus, kidney transplant, schizophrenia, HPV infection and hearing loss.

 

Contact: Atiya Butler, 718-334-1259
Ian Michaels, (212) 788-3339

About Elmhurst Hospital Center

Elmhurst Hospital Center (EHC), part of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), is the major tertiary care provider in the borough of Queens. The hospital is comprised of 545 beds and is a Level 1 Trauma Center, an Emergency Heart Care Station and a 911-Receiving Hospital. It is a premiere health care organization for key areas such as Surgery, Cardiology, Women’s Health, Pediatrics, Rehabilitation Medicine, and Renal and Mental Health Services. Last year, EHC received close to 700,000 ambulatory care visits and over 130,000 Emergency Room visits.

About HHC

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) is a $6.7 billion integrated healthcare delivery system, the largest municipal healthcare organization in the country, and one of the New York area's largest providers of government-sponsored health insurance, MetroPlus Health Plan, the plan of choice for nearly half a million New Yorkers. HHC serves 1.4 million New Yorkers every year and more than 475,000 are uninsured. HHC provides medical, mental health and substance abuse services through its 11 acute care hospitals, five skilled nursing facilities, six large diagnostic and treatment centers and more than 70 community based clinics. HHC Health and Home Care also provides in-home services for New Yorkers. HHC was the 2008 recipient of the National Quality Forum and The Joint Commission's John M. Eisenberg Award for Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality. For more information, visit www.nyc.gov/hhc or find us on facebook.com/nycHHC or twitter.com/HHCnyc.