Incarnation Children's Center

In March 2012, the New York City community celebrated the work of Incarnation Children’s Center, which for more than 20 years has provided high-quality skilled nursing care to infants, children, and teens coping with HIV/AIDS. The facility’s fourth yearly “Hearts for Hope” gala event additionally honored four individuals without whom the center’s lifesaving work would never have been possible.

In response to the growing number of AIDS diagnoses among babies and young children in the 1980s, Sister Una McCormack, formerly executive director of the Catholic Home Bureau, and Dr. Margaret Heagarty, who taught pediatric medicine at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, worked together to find a place to care for those who had been abandoned or were most critically ill. Incarnation Children’s Center became a reality with the support of Monsignor Thomas Leonard, who provided an unused convent in the Washington Heights neighborhood, and additional financial backing from businessman and philanthropist Jack Rudin.

Incarnation Children’s Center has received recent high rankings from several publications, among them U.S. News & World Report. The magazine looked at several factors, including staff-to-patient ratios, quality of overall care, and data reported from standard health inspections. It rated the facility at or near the top of the scale on all components. Each of the 21 patients at the facility receives, on average, more than two staff-hours of attention and nearly six hours of certified nursing assistant care each day, significantly higher than state and national averages for similar facilities.

Incarnation Children’s Center works to improve the lives of its patients and their families by offering an interdisciplinary approach to physical and emotional care. The facility offers the services of a professional dietician, an exercise program, and a roster of positive, planned activities. A joint project involving Columbia University Medical Center’s Department of Pediatrics and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, Incarnation Children’s Center has received international acclaim as a model for long-term care for young people with HIV/AIDS.