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The Hebrew Home at Riverdale has joined the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System as an affiliate member. Formalized on February 1, 2010, the new affiliation reinforces and builds on the longterm relationship between The Hebrew Home and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

"The Hebrew Home is very excited about establishing a partnership with NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System," says Daniel Reingold, President and CEO of The Hebrew Home at Riverdale. "This relationship will help further create a seamless, efficient and superb continuum of care for New York's senior population."

The Hebrew Home at Riverdale is one of the nation's leading elder care centers, earning a five-star rating on numerous Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Nursing Home Compare quality indicators. Located on 19 acres along the Hudson River in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, The Hebrew Home encompasses a comprehensive array of continuing care services:

• Skilled Nursing Facility with 870 beds.
• Specialized Neighborhoods (Units) providing care for patients with Alzheimer's and dementia.
• Short-Term Stay Unit providing rehabilitation and post-acute and care for stroke and post surgical recovery, as well as wound care. In addition, the Hebrew Home at Riverdale is the only skilled nursing home facility in the tri-state area that has a warm water pool for aquatic therapy that is available to patients in the Short-Term Stay Unit.
• Senior/Independent Living with 134 apartments located on the main campus.
• ElderServe Social Day Program and Medical Model Day or Night Care, which offers a full spectrum of health care and supportive services for people living at home, but who need socialization, personal care and/or nursing care.
• ElderServe Homecare, providing traditional and long-term home healthcare programs for residents of Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and lower Westchester counties.
• A Medicaid Management Long-Term Care plan that provides a wide range of long-term care services for its members, coordinating all their health care needs.
• The Research Division of the Hebrew Home has been at the forefront of eldercare research committed to improving the lives of people with Alzheimer's and their caregivers. It has been the coordinating center for numerous studies on dementia care funded by the National Institute for Aging.

"For more than a decade, NewYork-Presbyterian has had a close clinical and programmatic relationship with The Hebrew Home at Riverdale," says Herbert Pardes, MD, President and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Healthcare System. "At NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell, The Hebrew Home provides services at the Wright Center on Aging, where it has its Elderserve Program, and Weill Cornell Medical College's Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology coordinates care for Hebrew Home patients hospitalized at the NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell campus. The Hebrew Home also works closely with the Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons Division of Geriatric Medicine at both The Allen Hospital and the Milstein Pavilion, which provide care for many of The Hebrew Home's residents. We are very excited about establishing a more formal relationship with The Hebrew Home that will enable us to advance these collaborations and further develop clinical relationships."

"The Hebrew Home at Riverdale is a foremost institution for care of the elderly," says Wayne Osten, Senior Vice President and Director of the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System. "It has a history of providing the highest quality of care to the elderly, developing innovative programming to meet the needs of a changing geriatric population, and continually distinguishing itself in the field for managing the most challenging issues, such as Alzheimer's disease and dementia, facing older adults and their families. The Hebrew Home is an outstanding addition to the System, and we look forward to sharing expertise and resources, and working together on quality and safety initiatives that will benefit patients along the continuum of care and among all System members."

NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System

The NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System is the largest secular not-for-profit non-governmental health care system in the U.S., and includes 24 acute care hospitals, as well as specialty institutes, continuing care facilities and ambulatory providers. The System is a commonwealth of health care organizations committed to providing high-quality, and cost-effective care to communities throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Its members serve nearly one in five patients in the New York metropolitan area. Acute care members are academic affiliates of one of two Ivy League medical schools: Weill Cornell Medical College and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. For additional information, visit www.nypsystem.org.

The Hebrew Home at Riverdale

The Hebrew Home at Riverdale is a non-sectarian, not for profit geriatric care center that provides a continuum of care to more than 3,000 older people in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Westchester County, New York. Founded in 1917 as a shelter for homeless elderly in Harlem, the Home is located on a beautiful 19 acre campus along the Hudson River and provides residential healthcare, rehabilitation and palliative care facilities, a senior housing community and The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Center for Elder Abuse Prevention. A member of the American Association of Museums, the Hebrew Home is known for its extraordinary collection of contemporary and modern works of art. For more information, please visit www.hebrewhome.org.

Background Information

Advancing Care for the Elderly

The Hebrew Home at Riverdale and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital are both at the forefront of developing pioneering programs to serve the multiple medical, psychological, and social needs of the growing population of elderly.

At The Hebrew Home, these programs include:

ElderServe at Night — an award-winning program established in 1999 for people suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's disease. The program, which runs seven nights a week from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., was launched to provide participants, whose sleeping schedules have been altered by the illness, with activities throughout the night, including meals, music therapy, live entertainment, exercise programs, and a place to nap. For the caretakers, the program provides peace of mind and allows them to get a restful night of sleep knowing that their family members are in good hands.

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Center for Elder Abuse Prevention — the nation's first shelter for victims of elder abuse in the community. Opened in 2005, the Weinberg Center works with partners on the local, state and national levels to help identify and prevent elder abuse. More recently, the Weinberg staff developed an assessment tool that is now an official part of The Hebrew Home's short-term admissions process to help ensure that no patient is discharged into an unsafe setting.

Assisted Living Program — a 40-unit assisted living program now being created within the existing infrastructure of The Hebrew Home at Riverdale, adding another level of care to its continuum at an affordable cost to those in need, including benefit Medicaid eligible seniors and victims of elder abuse residing in the community. The assisted living program has been made possible by an $8.27 million grant from the New York State Department of Health, the largest grant in Hebrew Home history. The grant comes under the HEAL (Healthcare Efficiency and Affordability Law) 12 Program, which seeks "right-sizing" by long-term care facilities.

Greenberg Starr Center for Memory Support — made possible through the leadership and generosity of Maurice R. Greenberg and the Starr Foundation, the Center for Memory Support is a specialized residential community supporting persons with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease in a highly individualized way. The Center uses non-traditional therapies including exercise, pet therapy, tai chi, gentle touch and aromas to reduce aggressive behaviors and improve sleep.

At NewYork-Presbyterian, programs in geriatrics and gerontology include:

The Irving Sherwood Wright Center for Aging Research and Clinical Care — the centerpiece of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology's clinical activities at NewYork-Presbyterian/ Weill Cornell. The Wright Center combines the healthcare expertise of the medical center with the social service programs of the Burden Center for the Aging and the Elderserve Program of The Hebrew Home at Riverdale. The Wright Center provides older adults and their families with access to some of the newest treatments, including new medications for Alzheimer's disease, develops methods to improve the delivery of care to older adults, and serves as an important site of geriatric education for physicians-in-training.

Greenberg Academy for Successful Aging — a collaborative project initiated between Hospital for Special Surgery's Education Division and the Wright Center to develop and implement health education programs aimed at the interests and needs of people age 60 and over.

The ACE (Acute Care for the Elders) Unit — an inpatient unit at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell providing a multidisciplinary approach to address the special needs of the geriatric patient.

The Housecall Program — designed to provide medical care to older adults, who for reasons of chronic disease, mobility impairment, or inclement weather cannot travel to the Wright Center.

The Cornell Geropsychiatry Institute — encompasses both the Westchester Division and the Payne Whitney Clinic, providing geriatric inpatient services at both campuses, day hospital services at the Westchester Division, and services to patients at Amsterdam Nursing Home.

In addition, the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Aging at The Allen Hospital provides older adults with medical, functional, cognitive and psychosocial care and other support services necessary to promote optimum health in later years and to provide support to the families of older adults and their caregivers. Specialty programs for older adults available through The Allen Hospital include:

Falls Prevention Program — providing sessions to help older adults learn to prevent falls and injuries from falls.

Geriatric Interdisciplinary Assessment and Frailty Program — for older and particularly vulnerable adults who have multiple medical, psychosocial and functional needs.

Columbia Cooperative Aging Program — for older adults in the community who meet with physicians and other medical professionals to learn how to improve their health and quality of life.

Interdisciplinary Hip Fracture Service — provides care to older adults who are admitted to The Allen Hospital with a hip fracture and guidance on transitioning to life after a hospital stay.

Housecall Program — staff conduct medical visits to older adults from the Division's clinical program who become homebound.