ECMC Announces Support For Buffalo Center For African American Health Equity

Medical Center to invest seed funds for new entity created to help improve social determinants of health for East Side Residents

Erie County Medical Center Corporation (ECMCC) in August announced it will provide major support for the Buffalo Center for African American Health Equity by allocating $372,000 in funds to support the initial launch of the new entity focusing on health issues affecting residents of Buffalo’s East Side. These dollars also assist in reaching the goals associated with the NYS Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) Program.

“ECMC is proud to partner with the Buffalo Center for African American Health Equity to focus on making real improvements in the lives and health of our neighbors on the East Side of Buffalo,” said ECMCC President and CEO Thomas J. Quatroche Jr., Ph.D. “This collaboration will work to make a real impact on the social determinates of health which impact our community, and we are grateful to Reverends Nicholas and Pointer for their vision to make this a reality.”

Pastor George Nicholas, senior pastor at Lincoln Memorial United Methodist and convener at African American Health Disparities Task Force, said, “ECMC has shown great leadership in making the initial investment for us to create our Center for African American Health Equity. As we move forward, the Center will focus on research, public policy, advocacy and programmatic responses to the social determinants of health.”

Kinzer M. Pointer, pastor at Agape Fellowship Baptist Church and chairman of the board of managers, Millennium Collaborative Care, said, “ECMC is the community hospital that serves most of the people in the problem zip code areas. We are pleased and excited that ECMC Corporation is the first community partner to step forward and earmark significant dollars to this effort. We are grateful to Dr. Quatroche for his visionary leadership.”

The announcement was made at Igniting Hope 2019: ‘Building a Culture of Health & Ending African American Health Disparities’ held Saturday, August 17th at Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo.