New York, NY - The HHC Foundation of New York City has been awarded a two-year $384,000 grant by the Altman Foundation to support the expansion of New York City's public hospitals' Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Program. The grant marks the first time the Altman Foundation has partnered with the HHC Foundation, which raises funds to support the mission of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), the largest municipal hospital system in the country.

Altman Foundation Vice President & Executive Director Karen L. Rosa states "we are so pleased to join with the HHC Foundation to expand the good work of the LEP Program and improve care for vulnerable populations throughout HHC. With this one investment, Altman has the opportunity to help bring new health literacy and translation resources to thousands of immigrants and other New Yorkers-a reach that is unprecedented for the Foundation."

Approximately one and a half million people, 24% of New York City's population, speak little or no English. As the City's public hospital system, HHC disproportionately sees patients who are immigrants and have limited English and educational/literacy levels compared to other New York City hospitals. Because HHC serves all New Yorkers regardless of their ability to pay, immigrants of every status come through its doors to seek healthcare. Surveys indicate that more than 100 languages are spoken by HHC clients.

"This grant is an extraordinary commitment from the Altman Foundation," says Ann Jackowitz, Executive Director of the HHC Foundation. "It marks the beginning of an exciting and promising partnership that will impact health literacy for thousands across the entire city and will reach far beyond our five boroughs."

The LEP program expansion will increase capacity and strengthen services to further enhance the quality and efficiency of communication between doctors and healthcare workers and their patients and families. Grant funds will be used to support two components of the LEP Program expansion. The first component, Tools for Communicating Safe Medication Usage, will involve the development of a standard set of multilingual patient materials to support safe medication usage at home using pictograms. The focus will be on ambulatory care services -- HHC completes over 5.5 million ambulatory care visits each year, a significant share for chronic illnesses that require regular prescription medications. The safe medication component will incorporate and build on related work being conducted in HHC-Bellevue's Department of Pediatrics.

The second component will include the development of Virtual Interpreting Training and Learning (VITAL), an interactive, on-line training tool for dual-role interpreters (bilingual HHC staff trained as medical interpreters). The tool will serve to systematize and improve medical interpretation training at HHC and improve care to the LEP population. VITAL will be developed through a collaboration between HHC and the Center for Immigrant Health (CIH), which is based out of New York University's School of Medicine.

The HHC Foundation has $1.2 million left to raise in order to complete the LEP Program expansion. Additional funding will allow for further expansion of HHC's Team/Technology Enhanced Medical Interpreting System (TEMIS), an innovation in medical interpreting using wireless headset technology. Also known as remote simultaneous medical interpretation, TEMIS allows a provider to communicate to an LEP patient in near real-time. As the provider asks the patient a question in English, the patient hears the question in his or her own language through the voice of an interpreter via wireless headset.

TEMIS has received numerous accolades including the New York State Governor's Award recognizing organizations that have developed programs leading to the employment of qualified people with disabilities. The TEMIS system was also recently designated as a 2006 Honors Program Laureate by the Computerworld Foundation at a June awards ceremony in Washington, DC. This national recognition honors innovations from around the nation that improve people's lives through technology.

About The HHC Foundation

The HHC Foundation raises funds to support a wide range of citywide healthcare programs that benefit all New Yorkers. Gifts from individuals, corporations, and other foundations help strengthen programs and services in New York City public hospitals. More than 1.3 million are served each year within HHC's 11 hospitals, 6 diagnostic and treatment centers, 4 long-term care facilities and more than 80 community clinics. HHC Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization and all contributions are exempt from federal income taxes to the fullest extent allowed by law. To learn more about The HHC Foundation, visit their website at http://www.thehhcfoundation.org/.

About The Altman Foundation

The Altman Foundation seeks to promote access to care for underserved and/or uninsured populations; increase the capacity of New Yorkers to be active and educated health care consumers; and promote the development and delivery of new approaches to quality and responsive care for the most vulnerable populations. To learn more about the Altman Foundation, visit their website at http://www.altmanfoundation.org/.