ABOUT BMS
The BMS Family Health and Wellness Centers (BMS) delivers quality services and comprehensive programs to over 17,000 residents in East and Central Brooklyn (New York). BMS provides a wide array of services that address and prevent health conditions, as well as strategies to empower our community through education, coordination, and advocacy.
92% of patients rate us "Excellent" or "Good" on feedback surveys!
MISSION
BMS Family Health and Wellness Centers provide and promote integrative and high-quality health care and social services to enable every individual and family in the communities we serve to achieve Total Health and Wellness.
VISION
Our vision is to ignite a total health and wellness revolution that creates significant and lasting positive change in the communities we serve.
BMS’s roots go back to a founding Leadership who were part of the Brownsville Community Council (BCC) established in the 60s with the aim of organizing and empowering residents to develop responses to problems rooted in the radical community shift that started back in the 1950s. It was this group of community organizers who were on the frontlines of the activism that led to the Brownsville Teachers Strike. The Brownsville Community Development Corporation (BCDC) emerged in 1974, the first Community Development Corporation that came out of the federal anti-poverty initiative and the umbrella organization which later opened BMS in 1982. That decision was driven by a community survey where residents identified health care as their number one priority. BCDC created BMS as a federally qualified health center in order to provide service regardless of ability to pay, immigration or health insurance status. As part of our founding BCDC successfully advocated with Brooklyn Legal A to New York State Legislators to allow access to healthcare capital dollars for development by non-profits, not just hospitals – a change that paved the way for increases in healthcare access statewide. Today BMS provides for and seeks to inspire the cultural, economic, medical, and educational well-being of every individual and family in its communities. About Our Founder: Joseph Francois Joseph Francois was the former Chief Executive Officer of BCDC and the founding Executive Director of BMS. Mr. Francois, who passed away on July 13, 2003, was a tireless and passionate advocate for the people of Brownsville, Ocean Hill, and East New York. It was his leadership and vision that shaped the corporation’s mission as a social change agent. His legacy is in our every achievement. On May 11, 2006, the BMS Health & Wellness Centers (BMS) held a dedication ceremony during which BMS renamed one of its seven service sites as the “BMS Life & Wellness Center: The Joseph K. Francois Pavilion,” in honor of our late founding executive director of BMS.
OUR STORY
Our original logo still serves as the foundation upon which we developed updated branding.
LEADERSHIP TEAM
BMS is led by a group of outstanding professionals committed to providing equitable and culturally sensitive health
services to the most underserved people of Brownsville and East New York. The BMS staff is composed of 250+ highly qualified clinical staff of multiple cultural, ethnic, and professional backgrounds, many of them part of the community that BMS has served for over 45 years. Our President/CEO since 2009, Harvey Lawrence, recently honored with the prestigious National Association of Community Health Centers Lifetime Achievement Award, has retired and passed the baton on to Michelle Everett-Oxley. Thank you for your unwavering dedication and guidance.
Michelle Everett-Oxley
CEO
(She/Hers)
Lawrence Martin
Chief Operating Officer
(He/His)
Camille Taylor Mullings
Chief Medical Officer
(She/Hers)
Edmund Awuah CPA, CGMA
Chief Financial Officer
(He/His)
Mitchell Wolff
AFO/Controller
Finance Department
(He/His)
Responsible for designing, maintaining, and providing oversight of the organization’s financial internal control structure the financial books and records, budget reporting internally and externally.
Alison Brown
Director of Nursing
(She/Hers)
Directs the development, implementation, and evaluation of the nursing regimen for BMS, involving health maintenance, patient education, and diagnosis and treatment of responses to actual and potential health problems.
Coreen London Mitchell
Managing Director of Talent Learning and People
(She/Hers)
Leads the human resources team and ensures that human capital-related policies and strategies are developed timely and uniformly implemented and applied across the organization.
Ms. Astrid Carl, MBA, FACHE
Director of Credentialing
(She/Hers)
Leads the human resources team and ensures that human capital-related policies and strategies are developed timely and uniformly implemented and applied across the organization.
Renee Muir
Managing Director of Development
Public Affairs & Health Equity
(She/Hers)
Oversees strategy development, growth of the organization, grant writing and donors' engagement, community relations, public affairs, management of stakeholder partnerships, and community wellness programs.
Hildegarde Reimers
Managing Director of Quality
& Risk Management
(She/Hers)
Responsible for the overall administration of quality and risk management, managed care, value-based initiatives, shared savings arrangements, patient-related services incentives and all patient services reimbursement contracts.
Guy Marthone
Managing Director Health Information, RCM, Technology & Telecommunication, and Health Information Systems
(He/His)
Responsible for organizing, overseeing, and protecting patient health information data which includes symptoms, diagnoses, medical histories, test results, and procedures.
Genese Morgan
Senior Project & Business Manager, Fund Development &
Special Projects
(She/Hers)
Responsible for assisting in the day-to-day operations of the organization with a focus on capital and special projects.
OUR IMPACT
From our start with one clinical location, BMS had grown to operate out of ten service sites throughout Brownsville and East New York, employing more than 250 professional and support staff, many of them community residents. We are the second largest non-government employer in Brownsville and our staff serve 17,000 patients annually amounting to over 85,000 patient visits.
THE 17,000 PEOPLE WE SERVE
70% Black/Afro Latinx
15% Latinx
15% Multi racial
WHAT WE PROVIDED
Healthcare Access
85.6K
Healthcare visits
Insurance Aid
10K
Patients assisted
Food
2MM
Pounds of emergency food*
*COVID Services, 2020
WIC Nutrition
2.3K
Residents served
COVID-19 IMPACT
As a comprehensive Federally Qualified Health Center, BMS carried out outstanding work addressing the disproportionate impact on health and social needs, and consequences that our communities endured over the course of the COVID-19 outbreak.
We quickly pivoted to provide informative outreach, telehealth, testing, food, supplies, and locally accessible vaccinations to all, including incentives for hesitant segments of the communities.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
BMS undertakes considerable efforts to plan and implement capital projects to expand access to high-quality healthcare. From one clinic site in Rockaway Avenue, we have grown to three clinical locations and over seven service points offering specialized care and social services. BMS has developed strong relationships with public, private, and community-based partners to bring in capital investment for the construction of long-lasting facilities.
Oral Care Expansion
BMS Dental @Bristol
Since 1988, BMS Dental grew from one to three dental practices - BMS Dental@Main, BMS Dental@Genesis and BMS Dental@Ashford, for a total of 12 dental operatories. The 2022 opening of our BMS Dental@Bristol increased our exam room capacity by 10 dental operatories. BMS will re-open the BMS Dental@Genesis site for a total of 15 dental operatories. BMS Dental@Bristol includes:
-
State of the Art Design
-
10 examination rooms
-
Full-service oral healthcare
-
Electronic dental records
Primary Medical Care Expansion
BMS Genesis Expansion
-
5 Additional examination rooms and wellness center, as well as many other amenities.
BMS at Affordable Housing Development
BMS Express@Dumont Urgent Care operated by BMS is located within Van Dyke III, a twelve-story affordable and supportive housing development in Brownsville.
Workforce Training
BMS Workforce and Training Center
This project will bring workforce training resources to our communities to support residents skills building to move them out of poverty. This location will provide a wide range of education, training, and resources on health, wellness, and community economic development. It will provide direct connections to BMS’s ever-growing employment referral network, and cultivate the next generation of health care industry workers.
Urgent Care Expansion
BMS Express@Dumont Urgent Care
This state-of-the-art facility adds an intercessory level of episodic care and an access point to transform the behaviors of those who currently frequent emergency rooms. Incorporated into the care model will be enhanced care coordination and referrals to ensure patient follow-up, primary care, social services, and behavioral health. It is located within affordable and supportive housing Van Dyke III in Brownsville. The new site includes:
-
6 exam rooms with a nursing station for medical treatment
-
1 mammography room
-
1 x-ray diagnostic room
-
1 phlebotomy room
Wellness Centers
BMS @Dumont Wellness Studio
Separate wellness center flexible space for local activities and health education events in the Dumont Van Dyke housing development.
BMS Main Medical and Wellness Hub
BMS will develop a new 50,000SF facility adjacent to 592 Rockaway Avenue. The facility will add approximately 24 new exam rooms for adult medicine, dental, pediatric, ophthalmology and OB/GYN; and relocate specialty services such as pulmonology, nephrology, gastroenterology and cardiology for better accessibility. Social services and behavioral health expansions will better diagnose and serve needs, and a telemedicine suite will aid care coordination and referrals. Diagnostic imagining services, an expanded physical therapy department and placement of the WIC program in the clinical environment will allow easy access for pediatric patients and families. BMS will also have a larger medical lab and provide space for patient education and group visits, health care enrollment, financial services, clothing and food distribution, a kiosk for program partners to deliver onsite services, discounted pharmacy services through the 340B program and create much-needed parking for staff.
BMS Community Development Funders Include:
OUR STANDARDS
BMS is recognized excellence in providing total health and wellness, and quality care.
We are pleased to announce that in 2022 BMS Received the following Quality Awards:.
Joint Commission Gold Seal
Silver Medal Award: Health Center Quality Leader
Addressing Social
Risk Factors
Advancing Health
Information
Technology (Hit)
For Quality
Patient Centered Medical Home
(PCMH)
Meaningful Use Attestation
Federally Qualified Health Center
The 340b Prescription
Pricing Program
Accountable Health Organization
GET INVOLVED
Health should not be a privilege and your zip code should not determine your lifespan. BMS has been a leader in developing innovative programs in partnership with community residents and stakeholders to improve health outcomes for the families we serve.
Give
Click below to support our integrative and high-quality healthcare, however you can.
Come Help Us
Looking for other ways to help? If you have a few hours, you can make a big difference.
Partner with Us
Help us fund infrastructure, programming and services to strengthen our community.
Work with Us
Passionate about providing the best care to patients? Want a place to grow? Check us out.