Newswise — UMDNJ-University Behavioral HealthCare (UBHC) clients now have easy access to primary care at a new integrated health care center, one of just a handful of facilities of its kind in the country, that opened this week in UMDNJ's Behavioral Health Sciences Building.
The Yaffa - Rose Integrated Care Center was established by UMDNJ-University Behavioral HealthCare in collaboration with the Department of Family Medicine at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School with an anonymous donation through the Foundation of UMDNJ.
The integrated care center is located in B1455, inside the university's Behavioral Health Sciences Building, 183 South Orange Ave. There, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School Assistant Professor Dr. Winthrop Dillaway III, a board-certified family medicine physician with qualifications in addictions, will see patients from UBHC's partial hospital programs and its adult and child outpatient programs. Also staffing the center are a receptionist and medical technician.
"The center will provide on-site, integrated physical healthcare to all underserved UBHC consumers," said Christopher Kosseff, president and chief executive officer of UBHC and senior vice president for administration at UMDNJ. "This also will be a training site for family practice residents, psychiatry residents, psychology interns and peer counselors, truly maximizing the service-training mission of UBHC."
Uninsured patients and those who have difficulty accessing primary care are the new center's target populations, said Michele A. Miller, R.N., M.S.N., vice president for acute services and nursing services at UMDNJ-University Behavioral HealthCare. "Many of our clients use emergency rooms as their resource for primary care," Miller said.
"This is an opportunity to centralize their behavioral and physical health care needs at one location. If they need to be seen by a primary care physician, are in need of a prescription or require lab work, our clients can get what they need here, in the same building where they come for behavioral health services."
On average, seriously ill mental health clients die almost 25 years younger than the rest of the population, Miller said. Complications from diabetes, cardiac and respiratory issues, obesity, and hypertension are among the potentially deadly medical conditions that can be managed more effectively through primary care.
Dr. Mark Johnson, chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, was instrumental in getting the center up and running. He sees yet another advantage to having behavioral and primary care under one roof. "When primary care physicians and psychiatrists speak with each other directly about a patient's care, and both know the full range of medications and treatments the patient is receiving, they are far more likely to achieve the best outcome than if they work separately."
Over the last 20 years, UBHC has implemented several physical health integration initiatives. Most recently, UBHC's physical health subcommittee created a database to connect its clients throughout the state with primary care providers. Still, Miller said, "there remain a number of patients who did not connect with a physician or could not access the resource."
Last month, a focus group consisting of consumers of UBHC programs in Newark shared with Miller the specific challenges they face. Lack of transportation, setting up appointments, and lengthy waits for appointments were among them. "When clients were asked how they would feel if there were a primary care physician on site, they responded that it would be a relief," Miller said.
Nine months ago, UBHC launched a similar integrated care program in New Brunswick, in partnership with St. John's Health Center, with funding from an anonymous donor. That donor and a partner then contributed additional funding to establish a similar program in Newark.
At the Yaffa " Rose Integrated Care Center in Newark, Dillaway will see UBHC clients between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. Nurses within UBHC's partial hospital programs and its adult and child outpatient programs are working with psychiatrists to identify those who can best be served through the center. Referrals already are coming in, Miller said.
The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is the nation's largest free-standing public health sciences university with nearly 5,700 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty practices at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a statewide mental health and addiction services network.
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