New contract provides eight years' support for vital WTC-related health care for 9/11 workers and volunteers
NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has awarded new funding for the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence at the Icahn School of Medicine's Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health.
Under this new contract, which will fund up to $340 million over eight years, our WTC Health Program will continue to provide— at no cost—medical monitoring, treatment, and case management services for responders who participated in the rescue, recovery, debris clean-up, and related support services following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Our WTC Health Program, a component of the Mount Sinai Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health, is the largest such center in the country and proudly cares for more than 25,000 responders at its Manhattan, Staten Island, Suffern, and Yonkers, New York, locations.
"The ongoing support of the federal government ensures that we're able to provide critically needed services to responders," said Michael Crane, MD, MPH, Medical Director of the Selikoff Centers. "Decades after 9/11, we're only beginning to understand the health effects related to exposure to the WTC disaster site. Thousands of responders have developed chronic physical and mental health conditions, and all of them require monitoring and dedicated, ongoing care. The terms of this contract underscore our WTC Health Program's commitment to meet the expanding health care needs of our aging responder population, in areas including mental health, cancer care, and case management."
Sandra M. Lowe, MD, Medical Director of the WTC Center's Mental Health Program, added, "Many responders who developed psychiatric conditions due to their work at the WTC disaster site continue to experience symptoms, adding to their overall health burden. This funding will allow us to continue to address the growing mental health care needs of our program's brave responders."
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with more than 43,000 employees working across eight hospitals, over 400 outpatient practices, nearly 300 labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time — discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients' medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 7,300 primary and specialty care physicians; 13 joint-venture outpatient surgery centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and more than 30 affiliated community health centers. We are consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals, receiving high "Honor Roll" status, and are highly ranked: No. 1 in Geriatrics and top 20 in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology/Lung Surgery, Rehabilitation, and Urology. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked No. 12 in Ophthalmology. U.S. News & World Report's "Best Children's Hospitals" ranks Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital among the country's best in several pediatric specialties. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is one of three medical schools that have earned distinction by multiple indicators: It is consistently ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report's "Best Medical Schools," aligned with a U.S. News & World Report "Honor Roll" Hospital, and top 20 in the nation for National Institutes of Health funding and top 5 in the nation for numerous basic and clinical research areas. Newsweek's "World's Best Smart Hospitals" ranks The Mount Sinai Hospital as No. 1 in New York City and in the top five globally, and Mount Sinai Morningside in the top 30 globally; Newsweek also ranks The Mount Sinai Hospital highly in 11 specialties in "World's Best Specialized Hospitals," and in "America's Best Physical Rehabilitation Centers." For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
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SOURCE Mount Sinai Health System
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