By Dustin Brown
Local politicians broke ground Friday on a major expansion of the emergency room at the Mt. Sinai Hospital of Queens, the largest in a series of improvements they are touting as a sign of the facility’s ascent from community hospital to state-of-the-art medical center.
The $8 million construction project, slated for completion within the next year, will modernize the emergency department by creating a dedicated entrance for emergency patients and adding space to the clinical and waiting areas.
City Council Speaker Peter Vallone (D-Astoria), a candidate for mayor, provided the first ceremonial strike of a sledgehammer into the plastered wall of the room to be renovation. He was joined by state Assemblyman Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria), state Sen. George Onorato (D-Long Island City), and the hospital’s executive director, Caryn Schwab.
The 235-bed community hospital, formerly known as Astoria General Hospital, was purchased in June 1999 by the Mount Sinai Hospital, which has promised to make major improvements and expand services there.
The new emergency entrance will be created from a hospital storage space formerly occupied by a retail pharmacy, Astoria Chemists, which moved across the street shortly after the Mt. Sinai acquisition.
Sporting a thumb brace fitted at Mt. Sinai Queens following a volleyball injury, Vallone recalled his own family’s long history of visiting the hospital while looking ahead to its future.
“The emergency room will be super and great, but I’m waiting for the day when we have a super and great hospital,” Vallone said, alluding to tentative plans to ultimately build an expanded facility for the hospital.
The City Council allocated $2.8 million for the project, which Schwab said had been secured by Vallone.
“There’s few investments we can make that have the same return as our health-care system,” said Gianaris.
The $8 million improvement will also include upgrades of the hospital’s heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and emergency generator systems, improvements to the lobby, and new suites for mammography and non-invasive cardiology, among others.
The renovations will allow ambulances to pull up to a separate entrance and take patients directly into emergency care instead of forcing them to go through the waiting area.
“If you have a sick patient or a person going through cardiac arrest, you have to pass through every single person,” said Sarah Solomon, the head nurse in the emergency department. The renovations “will give the patients more privacy and comfort.”
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
