Press Release

December 28, 2006
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Contact: Larry Parker
Phone: (973) 972-3000
parkerwl@umdnj.edu

Healthcare Foundation of N.J. Renews Grant
to Hospital’s Stroke Education Center

- Funds Will Help Continue Revolutionary Outreach to Newark Community -

NEWARK - A recent grant award of $113,000 by The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey will ensure a second year of services by the innovative new Stroke Education Center in The University Hospital’s Emergency Department.

The Center, led by Dr. Yu-Feng Chan, an emergency medicine attending physician at The University Hospital (UH ), held its grand opening on May 25. The Center provides education services about stroke 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to those visiting UH’s Emergency Department, whether patients or waiting family and friends.

The Center, located in a private room connected to the Emergency Department’s waiting area, is staffed by a trained health educator Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., who can answer specific questions in a confidential setting. Informational pamphlets (in English and Spanish) are available, as is a constantly scrolling video on two TVs in the waiting area about risk factors for stroke as well as how to prevent stroke.

The need for stroke education is critical in The University Hospital’s service area. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 50% of the population of Newark is African-American. Unfortunately, according to the American Stroke Association, research shows that African-Americans have twice the risk of stroke, and of dying of stroke, compared with whites. In 2005, of the 11,015 patients admitted to UH through the Emergency Department, 647, or 6%, were admitted for stroke.

Not all strokes are immediately obvious. According to one health educator in the Center, a man visiting UH’s Emergency Department said he realized for the first time from viewing the video in the waiting area that he had suffered a transient ischemic attack (commonly known as a “ mini-stroke”) a short time before, while waiting for a bus. The educator counseled the man to seek medical attention, since a mini-stroke frequently signals an impending future major stroke.

The Stroke Education Center’s staff not only provides outreach within UH’s Emergency Department, but also conducts stroke awareness and screening events at workplaces and schools in the Newark area. The Center can also help those inquiring answer questions about other conditions that may be risk factors for stroke, such as smoking, obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. The Center’s trained health educators can also answer more specific questions related to each individual’s health needs, from how to obtain a referral for a nutritionist to how to obtain health insurance coverage.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey is an independently endowed grant-making organization that was founded by the Jewish community in 1996 with proceeds from the sale of Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. The Foundation is dedicated to continuing its founding health mission through philanthropy. The Foundation's priorities are to advance the healthcare and wellness of vulnerable members of the greater Newark area, to ensure access to healthcare and quality of life for all. The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey is a partner in numerous programs with The University Hospital and the various schools of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

UMDNJ is the nation's largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,500 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health, on five campuses. Last year, there were more than two million patient visits to UMDNJ facilities and faculty at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates The University Hospital (UH), a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a mental health and addiction services network.