Advocacy and Community

At Children’s Hospital of New Jersey/Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, we recognize how health care disparities, social determinants and adverse childhood events affect our patients and their families. We attempt to increase our residents’ knowledge and competence in a variety of ways. The three main components are noted here.

ACGME Quality Improvement in Health Care Disparities Pathway Leaders Collaborative

Newark Beth Israel Medical Center (NBIMC) is one of 9 hospitals/institutions nationally chosen by the ACGME to participate in their Quality Improvement in Health Care Disparities Pathway Leaders Collaborative as part of the ACGME's Pursuing Excellence in Clinical Learning Environments initiative.

  • This Collaborative aims to accomplish its goals by: “Helping new clinicians view care through a lens that continually seeks to improve health care equity, and enhancing the skills to engage with the clinical learning environment to address disparities in care has the potential to change organizational culture and shape a workforce that is prepared to engage with and treat every patient according to their needs," Kevin B. Weiss, MD, senior vice president, Institutional Accreditation.
  • Create an infrastructure in every health care facility to reduce health care disparities by the engagement and communication between residency programs and faculty leaders, hospital leadership, safety and quality committees and other relevant personnel.
  • Leaders of this project include
    • Dr. Frederick Waldron, attending physician, Emergency Medicine
    • Dr. Matthew Schreiber, Chief Operating Office, CHJN/NBIMC
    • Ms. Atiya Jaha Rashidi, Director of Diversity and Inclusion
    • Dr. Kumta, Associate Program Director of the Pediatrics Residency Program
    • Residents from the emergency medicine, pediatric, and internal medicine residency programs who are actively involved in the QI projects which have been created as a result of this collaborative.
  • The Project will end in 2020 and the data and information generated from this venture will be used to make recommendations by the ACGME to all residency programs how to transform dealing with health care disparities.

New Jersey Pediatric Residency Advocacy Collaborative (NJPRAC)

We are members of the NJPRAC which is a grant funded collaborative formed under the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Community Pediatric Training Initiative (CPTI). The initiative aims to improve child health by strengthening community health and advocacy training in pediatric resi​​dency programs. We are currently working on a project with our local Family Success Center (FSC) to promote healthy early childhood development in New Jersey. Family Success Centers under the Department of Children and Families are “one-stop” shops that provide resources and supports for families before they reach a crisis.

Residents are an increasingly important component of the community interactions and will actively participate in the FSCs.

The efforts for the project are supported through a grant from the Nicholson Foundation and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Community Medicine Block

This block is a multifaceted collection of experiences for our residents to gain exposure for some practices and competence in others.

  • Women, Infants and Children office visit
  • Breastfeeding
    • One on one experiences with WIC breastfeeding consultants
  • Child abuse
    • Via our Regional Diagnostic and Treatment Center under the supervision of our two Child Abuse specialists
  • Toxicology
    • NJ Poison Control
  • Integrated Behavioral Health
    • Mental health specialists imbedded in our Pediatric Health Center

For any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at (973) 926-7471.