Columbia Opens Campus Of Infertility Center In Westchester
Center for Women’s Reproductive Care Now Located in Both White Plains & Manhattan’s Columbus Circle
NEW YORK (Nov. 14, 2006) – Columbia University Medical Center’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology today held a ribbon cutting ceremony at the new Westchester campus of the Center for Women’s Reproductive Care.
Lois T. Bronz, Westchester County Board of Legislators (District 8, White Plains); Deborah Dickson, Director of the Infertility Demonstration Program at the New York State Dept. of Health; Dr. Mary D'Alton, Chair of the Dept. of OB/GYN at Columbia University Medical Center; Dr. Mark Sauer, Director of the Center for Women's Reproductive Care; and, Dr. Melvin Thornton, Medical Director of the Westchester Campus of the Center for Women's Reproductive Care Located at 244 Westchester Ave. West, Suite 209, White Plains, N.Y. (free parking available), the new facility provides families from Westchester and the surrounding area with convenient access to the highly-specialized care offered by the center, minimizing their need to travel to the center’s main location in Manhattan’s Columbus Circle (1790 Broadway).
“We have a long tradition of offering world-class comprehensive women’s health care, and so we are thrilled to be bringing our superb doctors and fertility treatment care to Westchester families,” said Mary D’Alton, M.D., chair, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Columbia University Medical Center. The department is ranked # 4 in U.S. and World’s Report’s 2006 Best Hospitals issue making it one of the best in the nation and top ranked in New York.
Physicians who practice at the Center for Women’s Reproductive Care are full-time faculty members of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and participate in research, teaching, and clinical care. Columbia University established the first in vitro fertilization (IVF) program in New York City more than twenty years ago. Today, the Center is performing more than 1,000 IVF cycles per year and, despite specializing in difficult cases, its success rates meet, and often exceed, national outcomes averages.
Undergoing fertility treatments requires a significant time commitment from patients – for example, most patients undergoing IVF spend 7-10 days each month going to and from the center for treatment. With job schedules, taking care of young children at home and other commitments – especially as most appointments need to be in the morning hours when there is more traffic on the road – transportation to Midtown was an added stress for some patients.
“Our new location has enabled us to achieve our goal of minimizing one of the primary barriers to fertility treatment: travel time to-and-from treatment,” said Mark Sauer, M.D., director, Center for Women’s Reproductive Care, and vice-chair and chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Columbia University Medical Center. “Our mission is to provide accessible, affordable, subspecialty care at the highest level.”
“I am pleased to be leading this important new campus,” said Melvin Thornton, M.D., medical director, Center for Women’s Reproductive Care Westchester Campus at Columbia University Medical Center. “I know how important it is for our patients to achieve their common goal: having a child, and I am proud that our new location will help more families achieve that dream.”
White Plains Campus Patient Experience “My husband and I had been trying to get pregnant for five years before we sought treatment and were very lucky that we became pregnant after our first IVF cycle at Columbia’s White Plains facility,” said Alison Richomme, 39 of White Plains. “Our daughter, Mollie Isobel Nicolson, who we were told is the first baby from the White Plains facility, was born just a week ago.”
“We had a wonderful experience at the center – everyone from Lucy at the front desk to Dr. Thornton treated us so well. Lucy made us very comfortable and Dr. Thornton gave us the utmost care from start to finish. I really appreciated how he explained everything to us – I never felt anxious as he has a very calming presence. We’re so grateful.”
Insurance and Financial Support While most fertility programs do not accept insurance and require patients to pay cash for care, the Center for Women’s Reproductive Care accepts insurance from most major insurance carriers. The center accepts the following insurances upon verification: Cigna, HealthNet, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, Oxford, Aetna/US Healthcare, Pomco, GHI and United HealthCare.
Underinsured patients may still be entitled to financial support through the New York State Infertility Demonstration Program, of which the Center for Women’s Reproductive Care was selected as a participating provider. Under the terms of this program, patients must be New York State Residents between the ages of 21-44, be clinically infertile and meet certain other clinical and program requirements. Financial support is available on a sliding scale basis and extends to patients with middle-income households.
A representative of the program, Deborah Dickson, Director of the Infertility Demonstration Program at the New York State Department of Health, was a speaker at the ribbon cutting ceremony.
Fertility Treatments Offered by the Center for Women’s Reproductive Care Fertility care is typically recommended to couples who have failed to conceive after a certain period of natural attempts. In women 35 years-old or younger, it is advised that couples seek medical attention after a year of timely intercourse with no results. For women over 35, it is prudent to seek medical advice after six months of failed attempts, since a women’s age is a crucial factor in the chances of achieving pregnancy.
The center offers intrauterine insemination (IUI), IVF and other advanced fertility treatments, including: blastocyst embryo transfer, embryo cryopreservation, oocyte cryopreservation, frozen embryo transfer, ovulation induction, and PGD (pre-implantation genetic diagnosis). It also has one of the largest and most successful egg donation programs in the country with a large and diverse pool of donors, which minimizes waiting time for patients. In addition, the center offers care for male infertility, reproductive surgery, micromanipulation techniques and extensive patient support services.
These attributes have made the Center for Women’s Reproductive Care one of the largest, longest standing, and most successful infertility programs in the nation, attracting patients from around the world. To learn more about the center, its faculty, staff and services, visit http://www.columbiafertility.org.
### Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in pre-clinical and clinical research, in medical and health sciences education, and in patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, nurses, dentists, and public health professionals at the College of Physicians & Surgeons, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the Mailman School of Public Health, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. www.cumc.columbia.edu