NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue Pride Health Center Staff Named 2024 Winners of Interprofessional Humanism in Healthcare Award

NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue Pride Health Center Staff Named 2024 Winners of Interprofessional Humanism in Healthcare Award

Dr. Robert Pitts and nurse Charles Yee are being honored for their model physician-nurse partnership focused on providing care to underserved communities in New York City

The award from the Gold Foundation and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing recognizes high-impact collaborations between nurses and physicians

Dec 02, 2024

NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue today announced that Robert Pitts, MD and Charles Yee, BSN, AMB-BC, both of the Pride Health Center at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, were selected to receive the 2024 Interprofessional Humanism in Healthcare Award. The award from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing recognizes high-impact collaborations between nurses and physicians. Dr. Pitts and Mr. Yee are being recognized as champions for compassionate care for their collaborative approach to providing evidence-based primary care services to underserved New Yorkers.

"Bellevue is proud to be recognized for the great collaborative clinical partnership between our physicians and nurses," said NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue Chief Medical Officer Nate Link, MD. "Our clinical teams are leaders in providing high-quality, evidence-based care and addressing the health needs of our LGBTQ+ patients with dignity and respect. Congratulations to Dr. Pitts, Mr. Yee and all of our Pride Health Center team on this well-deserved recognition."

"This award and recognition motivate me to continue the important work and services we are providing to the most vulnerable populations of New York City," said Dr. Robert Pitts, Medical Director of the Pride Health Center at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. "I'm a firm believer that everyone should have access to comprehensive healthcare regardless of where they are from or their ability to pay. I'm honored to work at Bellevue and give back to communities that are most in need of gender-affirming services."

"I believe that everyone should have the opportunity and right to live a healthy life and have access to healthcare," said Charles Yee, staff nurse at the Pride Health Center at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. "It is an honor to receive this award along with one of my favorite physicians, Dr. Pitts."

"We are proud that Mr. Yee and Dr. Pitts have been selected for this honor, which celebrates the close partnership between nurses and physicians," said NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue Chief Nursing Officer Omar Abedalrhman, EdD, RN. "Our nurses work hand-in-hand with our doctors and all of the members of our clinical teams while tending to the needs of our patients. Thank you for your hard work and exemplary commitment to care."

Launched in 2023, this annual award is presented by the Gold Foundation and AACN to shine a spotlight on the need to foster care that places the interests, values, and dignity of all people at the core of every healthcare interaction. This distinctive honor, which is awarded following a national call for nominations and a competitive selection process, highlights best practices for nursing and medical students to follow as they commence their careers and establish their own interprofessional collaborations.

"When nurses, physicians, and other healthcare providers work together to build caring and collaborative relationships with patients, studies reveal a connection to smart healthcare decisions, better patient adherence with treatment plans, and less costly healthcare outcomes," said Dr. Deborah Trautman, AACN President and Chief Executive Officer. "We applaud this year's award recipients for their unwavering commitment to providing compassionate care, which is helping to ensure that underserved communities throughout New York City stay healthy and thriving."

"We are thrilled to be joining AACN in celebrating Dr. Pitts and Mr. Yee in this special award," said Dr. Kathleen Reeves, MD, FAAP, Gold Foundation President and CEO. "The human connection is essential to the best care - both the connection with patients and the connection with healthcare colleagues. A doctor-nurse partnership built on trust and respect creates healing relationships for everyone."

The award will be presented at the 2025 Gold Humanism Summit, to be held in Baltimore in September. To learn more about the AACN-Gold Interprofessional Humanism in Healthcare Award, including details on the inaugural 2023 award winners, click here.

The Pride Health Center at Bellevue was established in 2018 to address the needs of LGBTQ patients and communities across New York City. The Pride Health Center is staffed by five primary care providers who see patients every day of the week. The Center has a dedicated psychiatrist, as well as a clinical pharmacist who sees patients for gender affirming hormone therapy, including estrogen and testosterone, as well as long acting HIV prevention. The Center now cares for nearly 400 LGBTQ patients, 20 percent of whom are uninsured, 20 percent of whom speak a primary language other than English, and 80 percent of whom identify as either Black or Latino. In more than five years of care, none of them have become HIV-positive thanks to a suite of innovative and empathetic approaches, including a clinical trial for long-acting injectable pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

For more information about the Pride Health Center at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, visit https://www.nychealthandhospitals.org/bellevue/services/pride-health-center/

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MEDIA CONTACT: Bellevue Public Relations, 212-562-4516

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About NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue
NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue is America's oldest public hospital, established in 1736. Affiliated with the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the 851-bed hospital is a major referral center for highly complex cases, with 6,000 employees including highly skilled, interdisciplinary clinical staff. The hospital is a Level 1 Trauma Center and annually it sees about 103,000 emergency room visits, and more than 520,000 outpatient visits. Clinical centers of excellence include: Emergency Medicine and Trauma Care; Cardiovascular Services; Bariatric Surgery; Designated Regional Perinatal Center and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; Children's Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program; and Cancer Services. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org/bellevue and follow us on Facebook and X (Twitter).

About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest municipal health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city's five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system's trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlus health plan-all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 43,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

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