University Hospital of Brooklyn Promotes Message of Healing and Cultural Diversity During National Hospital Week:
Apr 21, 2008
Holds Annual Cultural Health Fair May 17
Brooklyn, NY - Hospitals are compassionate places that provide culturally diverse health care and promote community well-being. That’s the message SUNY Downstate Medical Center’s University Hospital of Brooklyn is sending during National Hospital Week 2008. As part of the celebration, University Hospital will host its Annual Cultural Health Fair on Saturday, May 17 from 11 am – 3 pm on Lenox Road between East 35th and East 37th Street.
“We want people to understand hospitals are all about culturally diverse health care and healing,” says Maria Yomtov, RN, MSN, CDE, director of the Center for Community Health Promotion and Wellness. “Our focus is very positive. Doctors, nurses and staff have one mission and that’s to help people of all cultures get the best care possible.”
Keeping hospitals in the spotlight is part of the tradition of National Hospital Week, a celebration of care that dates back to 1921. That year, a magazine editor in Chicago suggested an annual “open house” where an apprehensive public could see first hand the vital work performed inside hospitals. The idea spread across the country and helped change the perception about hospitals from places of illness to places of healing. Today, National Hospital Week is the nation’s largest health care celebration.
This year, University Hospital health fair organizers have selected a theme that emphasizes the healing process: “National Hospital Week—Where Healing Happens Every Day.” Attractions at the health fair include free health screenings and information, entertainment for children and adults, and activities highlighting the cultural diversity of the community SUNY Downstate serves.
For more information about University Hospital’s 2008 Cultural Health Fair call 718-270-2020 or 718-270-3739.
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About SUNY Downstate Medical Center
SUNY Downstate Medical Center, founded in 1860, was the first medical school in the United States to bring teaching out of the lecture hall and to the patient’s bedside. A center of innovation and excellence in research and clinical service delivery, SUNY Downstate Medical Center comprises a College of Medicine, College of Nursing, School of Health Professions, a School of Graduate Studies, School of Public Health, University Hospital of Brooklyn, and a multifaceted biotechnology initiative including the Downstate Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT for early-stage and more mature companies, respectively.
SUNY Downstate ranks twelfth nationally in the number of alumni who are on the faculty of American medical schools. More physicians practicing in New York City have graduated from SUNY Downstate than from any other medical school.