Health Center Wants to Keep Doctors in Harlem

Health Center Wants to Keep Doctors in Harlem

November 30, 2011 6:43pm | By Jeff Mays, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

North General Hospital announced in late June 2010 that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Institute for Family Health opened at the facility. (DNAinfo/Jeff Mays)

HARLEM — Because doctors tend to practice where they are trained, a new federally funded initiative from the Institute for Family Health aims to keep primary care doctors in Harlem by training eight of them here, starting next year.

The institute's Family Health Center at North General — one of 26 such primary care centers in the state — will begin training doctors in the Harlem Residency in Family Medicine in June 2012. The residency, funded through a "Teaching Health Center" grant, will become one of only a handful of health center-led residencies in the country.

The Family Health Center opened inside the existing facilities at the 200-bed North General Hospital last year, after the hospital announced that it was closing and declared bankruptcy in June of 2010.

"The institute has a strong track record of training family medicine residents who continue to practice in high-need communities. The addition of a Harlem-based residency program will allow us to attract more committed family physicians, many of whom will choose to stay here once their training is complete," said Dr. Neil Calman, president and CEO of the Institute for Family Health.

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