QHC opens new Ambulatory Care Pavilion

At an afternoon ribbon cutting, Queens Hospital Center (QHC) recently unveiled their new Ambulatory Care Pavilion, which holds a Diabetes Center as well as the Primary Care, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Ophthalmology and Dentistry clinics.
The Pavilion, a $53 million, six-story, 142,000 square foot building, will be linked structurally to QHC's main center, located at 82-70 164th Street in Jamaica. Patients and hospital staff can take an elevator to the first floor of the pavilion to reach a bridge connecting to the Queens Hospital Center.
Hospital officials expect that the new Pavilion, which was designed Perkins Eastman architectural firm and constructed through the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY), will allow the hospital to serve an additional 135,000 patients each year.
&#8220Queens Hospital Center's new Pavilion will fully complement our commitment to a philosophy of patient-centered care,” said QHC Executive Director Antonio D. Martin at the opening of the Pavilion on Friday, November 17. &#8220This breathtaking state-of-the-art facility succeeds in unifying and consolidating the services offered on our campus, creating a climate of streamlined efficiency in the delivery of healthcare to our community.”
&#8220This new Pavilion is exactly the type of enhanced care that our borough needs and wants in order to stop a dramatic out migration of Queens residents who seek medical care in other counties,” said Queens Borough President Helen Marshall.
After commending QHC, Marshall added that the borough is in desperate need of hospital beds, citing the statistic from a survey that she commissioned that Queens has 1.4 hospital beds for every 1,000 people, while Manhattan has 7.1 for every 1,000 residents.
In particular, hospital officials hope that the Diabetes Center in the new Pavilion will provide care for the growing number of local residents with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. According to a 2003 survey by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), about 7 percent of Queens residents have diabetes, and 20.8 million U.S. residents nationwide are estimated to have diabetes by the American Diabetes Association.
Alan D. Aviles, President of the Health and Hospital Corporation, which controls both the QHC and Elmhurst Hospital Center, said that through preventative diabetes care, the hospital hopes to lower the amount of patients who lose limbs and eyesight from the disease.
&#8220The opening of the new Ambulatory Care Pavilion at Queens Hospital Center represents HHC's continuing commitment to the redesign of outpatient care to maximize both patient convenience and positive clinical outcomes,” Aviles said. &#8220Patient-centered ambulatory care - with a particular emphasis on primary and preventive care - is the backbone of our mission-driven focus on improving the health of our communities.”
At the unveiling, several local leaders gave testimonials for the hospital, including former Borough President Claire Shulman, who also described working as a nurse and meeting her husband at the QHC.