Roosevelt Offering Luxury for New Mothers

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The New York Sun

For $750 a night, new mothers now have the option of deluxe accommodations at Roosevelt Hospital.

Joining a growing number of hospitals that are focused on patient amenities, the hospital, situated on Tenth Avenue in Manhattan, has opened a wing of private rooms where patients are served gourmet meals and have access to concierge and room service.

Each room in the seven-bed unit features views of Manhattan, as well as creature comforts such as refrigerators stocked with water and juice, baskets of grooming supplies, robes, flat screen televisions, and DVD players.

The unit “was created to meet the needs of our patients and to maintain our competitive edge as Manhattan’s largest obstetrical service,” the hospital’s senior vice president, Timothy Day, said. Renovations cost the hospital $200,000, and the unit officially opened in October.

Last year, Roosevelt doctors delivered 5,750 babies and the hospital expects nearly 6,000 deliveries this year. A 2006 report by the city public advocate found the hospital’s rate of cesarean sections in 2004 was 26.7%, well below the 39.6% for that year at New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s Columbia campus and the 37.1% at New York-Presbyterian’s Cornell campus.

Roosevelt, which merged with St. Luke’s Hospital in 1979, is part of Continuum Health Partners, a network that also includes Beth Israel Medical Center, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, and Long Island College Hospital.

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PRAISE FOR EFFORT TO REDUCE HOSPITAL INFECTIONS

A former lieutenant governor of New York, Betsy McCaughey, praised a growing effort by a group of New York hospitals to reduce infections.

Ms. McCaughey told The New York Sun that a concerted effort by the United Hospital Fund and the Greater New York Hospital Association to eliminate Clostridium difficile infections was worthwhile, although such an effort is overdue. Ms. McCaughey was lieutenant governor from 1994 to 1998.

“It’s the next major infection threat,” Ms. McCaughey, the founder and chair of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, said of the C. difficile germ. Ms. McCaughey said that food trays, bed linen, and blood pressure cuffs in hospitals can help to spread the bacteria: “It’s a quick trip from your arm to your fingertips and into your mouth.”

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KIDNEY REGISTRY TO LINK ‘INCOMPATIBLE’ MATCHES

A New York-based kidney registry has launched an online network to link donors and patients who are “incompatible” matches.

The National Kidney Registry’s “Best Match” network will facilitate transplantation involving live donors and patients who do not necessarily have the same blood or tissue types. In kidney transplantation, it is preferable to find individuals with matching tissue types, although it is possible to transplant “incompatible” kidneys if the organ is cleaned to remove the donor’s antibodies.

So far, Best Match has identified 12 transplants that could take place, and seven are tentatively scheduled for 2008, according to the registry’s founder, Garet Hil. There are currently 6,163 individuals in New York who are waiting for a kidney, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

Mr. Hil launched the registry in September when his daughter, now 11, needed a kidney. She received one from a cousin, and today “she’s doing great.”

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COLUMBIA NAMES DIRECTOR FOR RADIOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Columbia University Medical Center has named Dr. David Brenner as the new director of its Center for Radiological Research. Dr. Brenner, who succeeds Dr. Eric Hall, will also become the Higgins professor of radiation biophysics.

Dr. Brenner joined the Columbia faculty in 1983. Currently, he is a professor of radiation oncology. He also directs Columbia’s Radiological Research Accelerator Facility at Nevis Laboratories, a research laboratory for experimental physics in Irvington, N.Y. In an article published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Brenner and Dr. Hall warned that overusing CT scans could be harmful to patients.

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DUANE READE EXPANDING SKIN CARE ‘BOUTIQUES’

Duane Reade is increasing its presence into the skin care market.

The pharmacy chain, which currently operates five skin care “boutiques” citywide, is planning to open 19 skin wellness centers by the end of the year. Another 16 locations are set to open in 2008. There are 241 Duane Reade pharmacies citywide.

The skin care boutiques, located inside certain Duane Reade stores, carry high-end skin care products such as Vichy Laboratories from L’Oreal, Avene from Pierre Fabre, Lierac Paris, and La Roche-Posay.

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DR. OZ’S HEALTH CORPS WORKS WITH HEALTH DEPARTMENT

A health education program founded by Dr. Mehmet Oz, known for regular appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show, is working with the city to promote healthy eating.

Dr. Oz’s HealthCorps has teamed up with the city’s Healthy Bodegas Initiative, an effort to ensure that low-fat milk and healthy foods are available at neighborhood bodegas. Yesterday, Health-Corps officials said volunteers have administered surveys at bodegas, and they hope to give advice on ways to improve access to healthy food.

HealthCorps was founded two years ago by Dr. Oz, a cardiac surgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and the director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Columbia University Medical Center.

esolomont@nysun.com


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