| Abstract |
The Long Island Clinical Center of Excellence at SUNY- Stony Brook began serving the healthcare needs of WTC responders in the months following the disaster. Over 8 years later, this program grew to serve over 6,000 WTC Long Island-based responders. Due to the broad geographic distribution of the Long Island responder cohort, our Long Island Clinical Center of Excellence established multiple clinical sites in Nassau and Suffolk counties that are centralized by a clinical and administrative center in Islandia, NY. The Islandia space is the hub for retention, outreach, data, communication, medical record storage, and professional staff office space for those who travel between Suffolk and Nassau county sites. This center allows for the seamless coordination of services, outreach, data collection and quality assurance to ensure consistent, high-quality care is afforded to all Long Island responders. The mission of the program is to assist WTC responders in the management of their WTC-related illnesses, to detect and treat these conditions as early as possible, to encourage high-adherence to prescribed treatment, to identify health risk behaviors that may contribute to symptom burden, to educate the responder on preventive health behaviors, and to provide support services that will help the responders improve their well-being, cope with persistent health conditions and reduce their disability. |
