Primary Care

Grantee Name

Floating Hospital, Inc.

Funding Area

Primary Care

Publication Date

August 2015

Grant Amount

$238,524

Grant Date:

December 2010 – December 2012

The Queensbridge and Ravenswood housing complexes in Long Island City are home to a diverse, special needs population of 11,000 low-income residents who suffer from high incidences of chronic disease and are subject to health disparities.

To provide primary care to residents, The Floating Hospital and Wyckoff Hospital took over a satellite clinic located on-site at Queensbridge Houses, New York City’s largest public housing development. Following approval from the New York State Department of Health, NYHealth awarded The Floating Hospital a grant in 2010 to assume operations at the satellite clinic and support initial staffing costs to hire clinical and outreach staff.

Outcomes and Lessons Learned

  • Provide medically underserved residents of Long Island City’s public housing with expanded access to affordable, high-quality primary medical, dental, and mental health care services;
  • Treated 698 patients from the public housing community at the satellite clinic, with a total of 2,727 patient visits (not including cross-referrals to the main Long Island City clinic location);
  • Became a licensed Article 31 outpatient clinic through the New York State Office of Mental Health to provide mental health services for the community, including geriatric psychiatry;
  • Educated Long Island City’s public housing residents on the guidelines and goals of Healthy People 2020, (a national objective for improving the health of all Americans), with a specific focus on the diseases and risk factors identified in low-income communities, physical inactivity, poor nutrition, and tobacco;
  • Implemented a strategic advertising campaign that included bus and subway posters, health expos at the clinic and the Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement House, and presentations at numerous community center and tenant meetings; and
  • Developed new strategies and organized community health fairs and other events to continue outreach among and address concerns of hard-to-reach residents.