Open Door Brings New Possibilities to Putnam
Soon uninsured or underinsured Putnam residents who need medical treatment will no longer have to travel to Beacon or Peekskill to be seen. The Ossining-based Open Door Family Medical Center is opening a public health center in Brewster.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new medical center was held last Thursday and it was a packed house.
“I think so many people are here because this is really about a community center,” said Leg. Vincent Tamagna (R-District 1) who has worked with the Putnam County Health Center Task Force for the past four years to see the project through. “I saw right from the beginning that there was a need for this in our community. It is long overdue and much needed.”
The task force co-chairs Lillian Jones and Loretta Molinari have been working toward getting a public health care facility in the county for almost three decades. After meeting with Open Door and Dr. Jay Zaskow several years ago, their dream was finally able to become a reality.
Open Door received a $650,000 federal grant from the Prevention and Public Health Fund, a provision of the Affordable Care Act, to open the facility in Brewster. Dr. Jay Zaskow, a doctor who already had an established practice in Brewster signed on to be one of the center’s doctors.
The new Open Door center, which is located 155 Main Street within the Village of Brewster, has six examination rooms. Teaming up with Dr. Zaskow will be Dr. Debra Gerson. Together they will provide preventive and routine medical services to children and adults.
Additionally a dental care will be provided by a mobile unit that will visit regularly from Ossining.
Open Door takes health insurance and offers sliding scale fees for the uninsured, a point that is important to County Executive MaryEllen Odell.
“My instinct was that the obstacle was people were going to perceive this as a clinic,” said Odell. “I was hoping that the community was going to grab hold of the fact that it is the community at large that struggles with health insurance and health care every single day.”
From the standing-room only turn out for the ribbon-cutting ceremony, it appears that the community understands.
The Brewster center is expected to open its doors in January.
For more information about Open Door, call 914-941-1263.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
