Press Release

The Mount Sinai Hospital and Richmond University Medical Center Partner to Expand Health Care Services in Staten Island

The Mount Sinai Hospital and Richmond University Medical Center forged a clinical affiliation, effective March 1, 2012.

New York
(May 31, 2012)

In an arrangement that will enhance the provision of health care services to Staten Island residents, The Mount Sinai Hospital and Richmond University Medical Center announced today that they have forged a clinical affiliation, effective March 1, 2012. The partnership is one of a series of initiatives that RUMC believes will reshape the health care landscape on Staten Island by delivering expanded, more effective, community-based primary and outpatient care in order to address and counteract the adverse health trends that face Staten Island’s North Shore community and surrounding areas.

"Mount Sinai has developed a distinguished and successful patient care model to serve the unique needs of the community that surrounds us," said Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Mount Sinai Medical Center. "RUMC is in a position to build on this model for their own patients, who face similar health challenges, to improve health care on Staten Island. We look forward to partnering with RUMC in this effort, and to providing their patients with seamless access to complex care at Mount Sinai."

Wayne Keathley, President and Chief Operating Officer of The Mount Sinai Hospital, added, "We are excited to collaborate with Richmond University Medical Center in building robust programs and specialties to provide the local community they serve with the care options they need. Staten Island residents will continue to receive stellar primary, secondary, and most tertiary care services at RUMC, but for the more complex cases, they will have access to the renowned quaternary care for which Mount Sinai is known."

RUMC hopes to broaden the spectrum of care to residents currently underserved and thereby reduce hospital readmissions through the sharing of best practices, specifically developing community-based, in-home programs like Mount Sinai’s Visiting Doctors program. Throughout Manhattan, the Visiting Doctors team of physicians, nurses, social workers and administrative staff delivers comprehensive primary and palliative care to an underserved segment of the population—homebound adults. The team also reaches out to families and caregivers to offer emotional support and counseling. RUMC hopes to build a similar program on Staten Island, as the community it serves has exceptionally high rates of chronic conditions.

"Our first obligation as a health care institution is to identify and address the needs of our community," said RUMC President and CEO Richard Murphy. "I believe that collaborating with Mount Sinai offers one of the best opportunities to enhance patient care and complement our community health initiatives."

For Patients

The RUMC / Mount Sinai affiliation will allow RUMC to expand its physician network, specifically in sub-specialty areas, access new technology and hone best practices in clinical care based on proven models developed by Mount Sinai. Patients with complex conditions can expect to have a pool of expert physicians that can consult and evaluate their case for the best possible outcomes. For these patients, the agreement provides for a patient representative to manage the continuum of care between RUMC’s and Mount Sinai’s physician teams; logistical issues such as transferring medical records, scheduling and admissions will be handled seamlessly while focus is placed on treatment and outcomes.

Stated Richard Murphy, "Mount Sinai is one of the top academic medical centers in New York City. It has a world-class reputation, and our affiliation provides both institutions with an opportunity to learn and further improve patient care."

Mount Sinai and RUMC will work jointly to enhance existing services, including development of a comprehensive cardiology program at RUMC. Mount Sinai has achieved cardiac outcomes that are nationally recognized. Mount Sinai will support programs in gastroenterology; ear, nose, and throat (ENT); oncology; neurosurgery; psychiatry; and pediatrics and pediatric surgery. Doctors at RUMC will also work with Mount Sinai to develop evidence-based clinical care protocols to determine the most effective treatment course for patients.

For Physicians and Trainees

For RUMC physicians, the affiliation will provide academic faculty appointments with opportunities for continued training and education. Local medical staff will benefit from collaboration with specialist teams for accurate diagnosis and treatment options for their patients.

Through an academic component of the affiliation, RUMC will be able to tie its graduate medical education programs to Mount Sinai’s in order to provide the best possible education for its residents and fellows, specifically in the areas of organ transplants, liver, biliary and digestive disease medicine.

About Richmond University Medical Center

Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC) is a 510-bed healthcare facility serving Staten Island as a leader in gastroenterology, pediatrics and pediatric gastroenterology, urology, oncology, orthopedics, surgery and maternal health. RUMC maintains a Wound Care Center, Pain Management Center and a Sleep Disorder Center on-site.

RUMC is recognized for its outstanding neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) which has the lowest mortality rate in the metropolitan area and a survival rate of 99.4% (2011) that exceeds national benchmarks (Source: Vermont Oxford Study). RUMC is a Level 1 Trauma Center and a designated Stroke Center. The hospital was the recipient of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award for 2012. In 2011, RUMC was ranked by US News & World Report as among the region’s best hospitals for gynecology, urology, ENT & Diabetes and Endocrinology.

RUMC is at the forefront of technology with implementation of Electronic Health Records and has been recognized for its commitment to patient safety by Physician’s Reciprocal Insurers, one of New York’s largest malpractice insurance carriers, who awarded RUMC a Risk Management and Patient Safety Best Practices Award (2012) for the hospital’s implementation of an Electronic Medication Administration Record and Bar Coding Verification System for medication administration at the patient bedside.

For more information, visit http://www.rumcsi.org

About The Mount Sinai Medical Center

The Mount Sinai Medical Center encompasses both The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Established in 1968, Mount Sinai School of Medicine is one of the leading medical schools in the United States. The Medical School is noted for innovation in education, biomedical research, clinical care delivery, and local and global community service. It has more than 3,400 faculty in 32 departments and 14 research institutes, and ranks among the top 20 medical schools both in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and by US News and World Report.

The Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is a 1,171-bed tertiary- and quaternary-care teaching facility and one of the nation’s oldest, largest and most-respected voluntary hospitals. In 2011, US News and World Report ranked The Mount Sinai Hospital 16th on its elite Honor Roll of the nation’s top hospitals based on reputation, safety, and other patient-care factors. Of the top 20 hospitals in the United States, Mount Sinai is one of 12 integrated academic medical centers whose medical school ranks among the top 20 in NIH funding and US News and World Report and whose hospital is on the US News and World Report Honor Roll. Nearly 60,000 people were treated at Mount Sinai as inpatients last year, and approximately 560,000 outpatient visits took place.
For more information, visit http://www.mountsinai.org/.

Find Mount Sinai on:
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Twitter: @mountsinainyc
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/mountsinainy

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Tags: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai Health System, Patient Care

About the Mount Sinai Health System

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with 48,000 employees working across eight hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.

Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 11 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2024-2025.

For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.