Dental Reimbursement Program - Kings County Hospital Center Outpatient HIV Services continues to provide comprehensive medical and social support services to the community affected by HIV/AIDS. As the largest municipal hospital in the borough of Brooklyn, H+H/ Kings patient populations are largely minority, immigrant, poor, uninsured, homeless, and come from cultures that do not trust or encourage accessing healthcare. Brooklyn, with a population of 2.5 million, is the most densely inhabited borough in New York City. Racially and ethnically, Brooklyn is very diverse as a borough that encompasses 96 different ethnic groups and hundreds of thousands of foreign-born residents. Nearly fifty percent of who are not naturalized citizens. 46% of our service area populations speak a language other than English. Nearly 20% of our neighborhoods are Hispanic or Latino, 36% is Non-Hispanic White, 32% is Non-Hispanic African American, and more than 10% is non-Hispanic Asian. Brooklyn’s neighborhoods vary based on the distribution of races and ethnicities among their residents. The communities of Bedford Stuyvesant-Crown Heights, Williamsburg-Bushwick, East Flatbush-Flatbush, and East New York, for example, more than 85 percent of the residents are African-American or Hispanic. By comparison, in Greenpoint, Bensonhurst - Bay Ridge, and Borough Park, more than 50% of the residents are White. Sunset Park has the highest percentage of Asian residents at 29%. Brooklyn neighborhoods are grappling with high rates of HIV/AIDS and a healthcare delivery system that is, in many areas, ill-equipped to address the needs of women infants, children and youth infected with HIV/AIDS. These neighborhoods are among the highest in need of services for women, infants, children and youth living with and at highest risk for HIV/AIDS, but among the lowest in availability and access to services for these vulnerable populations. The existing service delivery system is fragmented at best. There is a scarceness of a “one-stop- shopping patient-centered model of care” in Brooklyn to address the populations living in the aforementioned communities. H+H/ Kings is one of the few that offers a “one-stop-shop” for this vulnerable population. Dental care is often neglected until the need becomes absolutely necessary. The dental practice at H+H/ Kings is a bustling center with a dedicated staff who work hard to provide quality care. All members of the community are welcomed and treated equally. The needs of the community members affected by HIV/ AIDS do not go unnoticed. The dental practice allows for an environment that is both comfortable and in tuned to the patient needs.
