When Gloria walks into her primary care provider’s office at Open Door Family Medical Center in Ossining with a bad cold, it’s not only about treating her minor respiratory infection. Her pre-visit planning document, viewed on the provider’s computer, spells out the gaps in her preventive health care. At the age of 52 and with […]

Free nutrition education, referrals, breastfeeding support, counseling, and healthy foods are available to low-income families through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, commonly known as WIC. However, historically, only about 50 percent of those in New York State who are eligible take advantage of it.  Open Door Family Medical Center, in […]

It was 2008 and Ben Geisler, a recent graduate of Boston College, was unsure about his next move. So, while living at home with his parents in Cortlandt Manor, he spent a year as a dental assistant at Open Door’s nearby Ossining site. It proved to be time well spent.  Except for the years back […]

Men, as a rule, don’t like to see a doctor.   This is hardly a scoop. Yet, there’s a consequence to this reluctance to getting routine exams and having regular screenings.  According to a recent study by the Cleveland Clinic, nearly 60 percent of men don’t regularly see a primary care clinician, going only when they […]

In his exam room, Dr. Andrew Swiderski hands his young patient a toy cell phone, encouraging the child to push the buttons that produce various sounds. Then he covers the keyboard with his fingers.  “Usually, a child will look up at me or his parent and say, ‘Why are you doing this?’  He’s made the […]

Sometimes a routine visual and clinical exam, done in a dentist’s chair, can save a life. Dr. Naida Henriquez, director of dentistry at Open Door Family Medical Center, and her team routinely perform a comprehensive oral exam and tobacco screening with patients as young as 12 years old. The exam itself, done as part of […]