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When Montefiore Medical Center nurses and doctors walk or run through hospital hallways, it’s not usually associated with a celebration. But when 50 or so employees took four laps through the Bronx hospital’s central building last Wednesday, it was.

They were kicking off “Heart Month,” a series of national events sponsored by the American Heart Association to bring greater awareness to heart health. The hospital began the festivities with its fourth annual mile-long walk.

Donald Stark, the hospital’s director of cardiology, admitted the short walk around the hospital was more symbolic than about actual exercise, but he hoped it would inspire local employees to bring the message of prevention outside the hospital.

“This is where we live, and our people who work here live here too,” he said.

“Our goal is that we won’t have to go all the way to heart transplantation,” said Dr. Mario Garcia, Montefiore’s chief of cardiology. “That’s why we’re here today.”

Garcia said that Bronx residents are particularly susceptible to heart conditions. According to New York City Health Department data, residents of the Bronx are admitted to hospitals for cardiovascular disease at a higher rate than the city overall.

“We are handicapped in many ways here,” Garcia said, adding that the geography of the borough puts Bronx residents at a health disadvantage.

“They have a very sedentary lifestyle,” he said. “Transportation is usually a bus or car. It’s not as convenient to walk in this borough.”

As if the lifestyle factors weren’t enough to make the Montefiore cardiology department’s job more difficult, Garcia said the current healthcare system in New York doesn’t do enough to emphasize preventive care — addressing an illness before it requires invasive and costly solutions, like surgery.

One goal of Montefiore’s Heart Month is to raise awareness of the shift the hospital is making in trying to take care of people before their condition lands them in a hospital. It is one of several dozen hospitals in the country, and the only one in New York, participating in a federal program designed to shift Medicaid and Medicare spending toward primary care.

“The idea is that, if right now a person who has diabetes comes to the hospital with a heart attack, that costs you $200,000,” Garcia said. “If we prevent them from getting sick to begin with, they don’t have to develop those end-style conditions.”

Heart Month is personal to some hospital employees.

“There’s heart disease in my family,” said Registered Nurse Geraldine O’Connell. “My dad had his first heart attack at 47, so it’s a risk factor for me.”

O’Connell said she has been trying to lose weight and is hoping to set a healthy example for her patients.

“I can’t be here being several pounds overweight, and expecting people to take me seriously,” she said. “You’ve gotta practice what you preach.”

If employees like O’Connell are any indication, Heart Month has been working.

“Once you lose a little bit of weight, you feel good about yourself and you get healthy,” said Paula McFall, a medical records staffer at the hospital. After participating in the mile-long walk previous years, McFall says she now does the same walk four times a day, every day, whether it’s Heart Month or not.
Ed. note: A version of this article appears in the latest edition of the Norwood News.

Here’s video about the event produced by Montefiore:

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