Health Groups Launch Infrastructure Agenda
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

A coalition of New York health care organizations has introduced a five-point agenda aimed at improving New York’s primary care infrastructure.
Calling the agenda a “road map” for lawmakers, the Primary Care Coalition said its recommendations would also control the cost of health care in New York State, whose $45 billion annual Medicaid budget is the costliest nationwide.
The coalition’s agenda recommends changing the payment system to increase reimbursement for primary care; expanding the primary care workforce; building medical “homes” for patients; promoting the use of health information technology, and further removing financial barriers to health care.
Union of Nurses Launches Site Attacking SEIU
The New York State Nurses Association has launched a Web site accusing the Service Employees International Union and its affiliates of raiding unions in New York and other states in order to become the country’s largest union of health care employees.
The site, SayNOtoSEIU.com, contains a litany of other allegations against SEIU, which it says has limited the bargaining role of its members. In New York, the union of nurses said, 1199SEIU supported the recommendations of a health commission, the Berger Commission, “which resulted in hospital closings and mergers and many of its own members losing jobs.” A spokeswoman for SEIU, Lisa Hubbard, said: “SEIU’s 85,000 nurse members do not condone raiding, and we welcome any opportunity to work with nurse organizations that want to work on nurse priorities, like quality patient care and universal health care.”
Peninsula Hospital Opens Hospice Unit
Peninsula Hospital Center in Far Rockaway has opened a seven-room inpatient hospice unit to care for patients with terminal and incurable illnesses. The unit, which also features a family room, will be run in conjunction with a Queens-based organization that provides hospice care, the Hospice Care Network.
Weill Cornell Names Professor of Reproductive Medicine
Weill Cornell Medical College has named a male infertility specialist, Dr. Marc Goldstein, as the Matthew P. Hardy distinguished professor of reproductive medicine and urology.
Dr. Goldstein, an expert in microsurgery, is surgeon-in-chief of male reproductive medicine and surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
The professorship is named after a senior researcher at the Population Council, Dr. Matthew Hardy, who died last year at age 50, shortly after completing the New York City Marathon.
esolomont@nysun.com