Improved Patient Care, Safety are Focus of New Planned Parenthood Service Center
Foundation Grant Assists Move to New Location
A $90,000 grant from The Schenectady Foundation is helping Planned Parenthood of Mohawk Hudson (PPMH) relocate its Schenectady Center to a newly renovated facility. The new location, the former Girl Scout building at 1040 State Street, will dramatically improve patient safety as well as operational efficiency.
Patient visits to the Schenectady Center have increased 17 percent from 2003 to 2005. The Center now serves approximately 5,700 patients – or more than 11,000 visits each year. Additionally, PPMH recently began a new program, Family Planning Benefits Program, which provides low-income patients with free comprehensive family planning services. As a result, the organization expects to serve hundreds of new patients (with thousands of visits) over the next three years.
Yet the space at the current Planned Parenthood Schenectady Center building is already stretched to its limits. Patients frequently have to stand in the waiting room, park blocks away and the education and rape crisis departments were forced to move to a rental office because of lack of space. Further, the building is not handicapped accessible and has inadequate parking. Also, and most disturbingly, patients and staff at the Schenectady Center are facing increasingly aggressive and mean-spirited picketing: picketers videotape patients, escorts and staff and often scream viciously at those entering the building – including children.
The new, larger building will allow Planned Parenthood to expand as more and more women and families visit the agency for services. The facility, which will be completely accessible to individuals with handicaps, will enhance all patients’ comfort and confidentiality by increasing the number of exam rooms, the number of counseling rooms and the size of the waiting area. These changes will decrease appointment and waiting times and increase Planned Parenthood’s capacity to offer additional services to patients. In the larger facility, there will be space to house the rape crisis and education programs, restoring a more coordinated approach to meeting patient needs. Importantly, an entrance off the parking lot at the new location will prevent picketers from harassing patients as they enter the building. The new location will house space for educational and training programs for professionals and residents on topics such as parent education, teen pregnancy prevention and HIV counseling.
“Supporting Planned Parenthood’s expansion of prevention health services provides a residual return on investment for other community services,” said Robert Carreau, administrator of The Schenectady Foundation. “Family planning and reproductive health services help the community address the incidence of school drop out, teen pregnancy and poverty. These services facilitate women’s access to education, help couples pursue economic opportunities and improve the health and well-being of children.”
Learn more at: www.ppmhchoices.org
Paul Drisgula (right), president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Mohawk Hudson, discusses plans for the new Schenectady Center with Robert Carreau, administrator of The Schenectady Foundation.
Prenatal nurse manager Patty Frank meets with a patient at the current Schenectady Planned Parenthood. The new facility will allow PPMH to provide more patients with more services with enhanced comfort and privacy.
Planned Parenthood’s new location, which will be completely renovated, at 1040 State Street.