Mount Sinai Queens is becoming the “hospital of tomorrow” as it breaks ground on its $125 million expansion project.
Hospital officials, community members and elected officials gathered on Monday, October 21 to break ground on the project that will help improve health care in the Astoria community.
“Today’s groundbreaking signifies more than just a new building for our hospital,” said Caryn A. Schwab, executive director at Mount Sinai Queens. “I’m grateful to Mount Sinai leadership, our elected officials, and the community partners with whom we worked most closely to make this project a reality.”
The expansion, which began in August, will include a larger state- of-the-art emergency department to be name the Starvos Niarchos Foundation. It will feature 35 patient bays, eight observation beds, an off street “drive-through” ambulance bay, a separate walk-in entrance and a new imaging suite.
The project will also bring seven new operating rooms and an expansion of the hospital’s outpatient medical services featuring a multispecialty medical practice, new primary care physicians, new specialists in cardiology, orthopedics and other departments, and integrated laboratory services.
“We’re going to be building the hospital of tomorrow,” said Dr. Kenneth L. Davis, president and CEO of Mount Sinai Health System. “In just a few more years, this part of Queens will be home to a state-of-the-art health care institution that will further enhance the quality of care and improve patient outcomes.”
New windows will be installed in the existing building and central air conditioning will be provided to all patient rooms.
“The people of Western Queens are fortunate to have a hospital that is adapting the changes taking place in medicine today, and that will soon be offering a new level of 21st century care as we create this spectacular new building,” said David L. Reich, president and COO of The Mount Sinai Hospital.
Once it is completed, it is estimated that the expansion will create close to 460 construction-related jobs, 340 additional jobs and 160 staff jobs, it will also add approximately $166 million to the local economy, officials said.
“As other hospitals are closing and being cutback, this one is growing and being added to,” said Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr., who has provided funding for the hospital through the City Council throughout the years. “Medicine keeps progressing and we have to stay up with that and that’s what this is about, staying up with the new needs of this growing community.”
The expansion project is expected to be completed by 2016. NK Architects and Davis Brody Bond were the architects. Skanska USA is the builder on the project.
Recommended Stories
