L to R: Michael Palumbo, EVP and Medical Director, White Plains Hospital; Bernadette Kingham-Bez, Executive Director, St. Vincent's Behavioral Health; Tom Roach, White Plains Mayor; Michael Spicer, President and CEO, St. Joseph's Medical Center; Susan Fox, President and CEO, White Plains Hospital; Susan Yubas, Vice Chair of the White Plains Hospital Board of Directors; NY Assemblyman David Buchwald; Ron Belmont, Mayor of Harrison; Michael Orth, Commissioner of Westchester County Department of Community Mental Health
White Plains Hospital (WPH), in partnership with St. Vincent’s Hospital, unveiled a brand new 18,000 square foot Family Health Center/Behavioral Health Center (FHC/BHC) this week—a new facility to support an integrated program to address the high prevalence of mental illness, particularly depression, in people with chronic diseases. A ribbon cutting was held today at 79 East Post Road in White Plains.
“This new Family Health and Behavioral Health Center reflects how we are partnering to impact healthcare in our community,” notes Susan Fox, President and CEO of White Plains Hospital. “By combining the exceptional healthcare of White Plains Hospital with the outstanding behavioral health services offered by St. Vincent’s, we’re able to take an innovative, integrated approach to caring for the whole patient. This is the future of building healthier communities.”
Previously, White Plains Hospital’s Family Health Center operated at 41 East Post Road. Patients with behavioral health needs were referred to a variety of outside resources. The new advanced center links preventive care, primary care, and if needed, behavioral health services and care coordination in the same location.
Grant funding awarded by the NYS Department of Health, along with funding from WPH, covered project costs for the four-story, 18,000 sq. ft. building. The new FHC/BHC facility serves adults, adolescents, children and their families in White Plains and surrounding communities and provides primary and urgent care for acute illness as well as behavioral health services. Many Family Health Center patients live in neighborhoods surrounding WPH and suffer from a host of chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.
The new facility is part of White Plains Hospital’s ongoing campus transformation, which included the April 2019 groundbreaking on its 252,000 sq. ft. center for advanced medicine and surgery; its expanded Center for Cancer Care, completed in 2016; and the Hospital’s new lobby and patient tower, completed in 2015. Since 2015, approximately 475,000 square feet have been renovated or added to the Hospital.