THE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL ALLOCATES
$2 MILLION FOR TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE AT 155 COMMUNITY-BASED HEALTH CENTER SITES THROUGHOUT NEW YORK CITY 

New York, NY, July 6, 2006—The New York City Council allocated $2 million in capital funding to the Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC) and the Community Health Care Association of New York State (CHCANYS) to install basic technology infrastructure at 28 existing health centers with 154 sites throughout New York City and one new center on Staten Island. This initiative will prepare these centers to implement health information technologies, such as electronic health records, that improve the quality and safety of healthcare.

Antiquated paper charts do not have automatic prompts that notify providers when a patient needs a test or other medical procedure, nor do they let a providers know if a new prescription interacts negatively with another drug the patient is taking. Electronic health records do all of this and more.

“The bottom line is that health information technology saves lives,” said Councilmember Gail Brewer.

“The funding from City Council is a crucial step that will drive the implementation of essential technologies and improve the quality and efficiency of services at community-based health centers,” said Elizabeth Swain, Chief Executive Officer of CHCANYS.

“The Council’s leadership in this area is critical to transforming a sector that provides primary and preventive care to underserved communities,” said Ronda Kotelchuck, Executive Director of PCDC. “The health centers need to upgrade their current systems in order to bring in these much-needed technologies.”

This initiative is part of the Primary Care Health Information Consortium (PCHIC), which was founded by PCDC, CHCANYS, the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and New York City community-based health centers to ensure that centers in New York City adopt health information technology. 

PCDC is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to expanding access to timely, effective primary and preventive care by providing capital and performance improvement programs to primary care providers in underserved communities. Since 1993, PCDC has invested in 58 projects, valued at $172 million, at sites that care for some 380,000 low-income New Yorkers and provide 1,800 permanent jobs in their communities. PCDC has another nine projects in development across the state valued at over $22 million. PCDC also has assisted over 230 primary care center teams at over 50 sites to implement changes that revolutionize how centers organize and deliver healthcare—reducing wait times and other barriers to care; increasing productivity, revenue, and patient and staff satisfaction; and providing patient-focused care.

CHCANYS is a non-profit Primary Care Association founded 34 years ago whose membership includes community health centers, providers of healthcare to the homeless and other special populations, school based providers, and community affiliated health plans in New York City and across the State. The Association’s purpose is to ensure that medically underserved people living in New York State have access to quality community-based health care services.