After lunch, half of the group hopped
on the subway and made their way up north into the Bronx for a visit to the
Bronx-Lebanon Hospital. Bronx-Lebanon is the largest voluntary,
nonprofit health care system serving the South and Central Bronx (www.bronx-leb.org).
We met for about an hour with Dr. Larry Ham, Director of Gynecology at
Bronx-Lebanon. Dr. Ham was able to offer a great deal of insight into
some of the major barriers to the delivery of care in a patient population that
comes largely from a lower socioeconomic class and boasts a large degree of
racial and ethnic diversity. We chatted about a range of topics including
the use of translator services at the hospital, some of the cultural beliefs
and practices commonly encountered in his patients, and strategies for
minimizing patient wait times and improving the patient’s overall hospital
experience. It was abundantly clear that Dr. Ham’s passion for serving in
this community has only grown stronger over the years, and that while the
patient population has its challenges, he finds his work incredibly
rewarding. He described the joy in helping a woman through her first
pregnancy, and later having the opportunity to take care of the baby he
delivered. We all left Dr. Ham’s office with a little extra bounce in our
step--knowing that we had just met a really great doc!
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