Medical Director's 2009 Summary

Mindful of our unprecedented growth in 2008, we set out in 2009 to avoid major new initiatives and focused on solidifying our existing programs.  Much attention was devoted to strengthening our medical staff. We were fortunate in being able to recruit Dr. Paulo Negro to be our new assistant medical director.  He has been in practice for 11 years and was previously the medical director of Suburban Hospital’s psychiatric services.  Dr. Negro is Board Certified in Psychiatry and is also certified in addictions by the American Society of Addiction Medicine.  He has extensive experience in detoxification and dual diagnosis, particularly in the area of mood disorders.

Dr. Negro will be responsible for providing services in our Silver Spring, Gaithersburg, and Columbia offices.  Dr. Phil Dvoskin and Dr. Paul van Ravenswaay continue to be our primary psychiatrists in our Towson and Washington D.C. offices respectively.  I will continue to oversee all five offices.  Together with our team of nurses, physician assistants, and addiction physicians, we will be providing outpatient detoxification in our Silver Spring and Towson offices and dual diagnosis services in all five offices.

Although the economic recession this year may have discouraged some people from entering or remaining in treatment, Kolmac nevertheless continued to grow.  During the year we treated 1,457 patients as compared to 1,257 in 2008 and have now treated a total of 14,120 patients since our program began in 1973.  At the end of the year, we had 678 patients in active treatment, up from 600 in 2008 and patient visits per day increased from 175 to almost 210.

The Kolmac Foundation provided funds for 54 patients, and has now supported a total of 77 patients since 2007.  The Kolmac School completed its first full year of free monthly CEU seminars, which were attended by 345 professionals.

Two new initiatives that I wanted to note are:

• We have partnered with Holy Cross Hospital to offer smoking cessation services in our Silver Spring office.  Because of outside funding, the sessions are free as are nicotine replacement medications.

• In order to ensure that our patients’ first exposure to AA is a positive one, Kolmac alumni established a meeting at the Silver Spring office on Saturday afternoons Continuing to meet at the Clinic are a beginners’ AA meeting in the Gaithersburg office, SMART Recovery meetings in the DC and Gaithersburg and Columbia offices, and Women for Sobriety in the Silver Spring office.

As we begin the 37th year of our program, I along with my 86 co-workers will continue to look for ways to improve the accessibility, affordability and outcomes of our treatment program.  Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

George Kolodner, M.D.

Medical Director

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