News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 4, 2014 

HHC Lincoln Medical Center expands City’s busiest single site emergency department

HHC Lincoln Medical Center Opens Newly Expanded Emergency Department

New Construction and Modernization Project for New York City’s Busiest Single Site Emergency Department

	Bronx leaders celebrate ED expansion. L-R: HHC Pres. Ram Raju, MD; Lincoln Exec. Dir. Milton Nunez; Community Advisory Board Chair George Rodrigues; HHC Exec. VP Antonio Martin; Generations +/ Northern Manhattan Sr. VP Denise Soares, RN; HHC Chief Medical Officer Ross Wilson, MD.

Bronx, NY ― New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation’s Lincoln Medical Center officials and community leaders today marked the completion of a major modernization and expansion of Lincoln’s emergency department (ED), a Level 1 Trauma Center and the City’s busiest single site emergency room, seeing more than 177,000 visits every year. The hospital’s new 34,200 square-foot, $24 million state-of-the-art ED expands on the previous space by almost 70 percent, improving patient flow and comfort. The expanded ED includes adult, pediatric, psychiatric emergency areas. The ED expansion at Lincoln Medical Center represents investments of more than $2 billion in facility modernizations that have been made by HHC over the last decade.

The expansion and renovation was announced at a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by HHC President Ram Raju, MD; Denise Soares, RN, Senior Vice President of the HHC Generations+/Northern Manhattan Health Network; Milton Nunez, Lincoln Medical Center’s Executive Director; Lincoln’s Chief Medical Officer Melissa Schori, MD; Chief of Emergency Medicine Fernando Jara, MD; and the hospital’s Community Advisory Board Chair George Rodriguez. They were joined by State Senator Jose M. Serrano.

“I'm thrilled to see a new emergency department in the Downtown Bronx,” said Denise Soares, Senior Vice President, Generations+/Northern Manhattan Health Network. “HHC’s Lincoln Medical Center is critical to the health and well-being of the community and will be essential in advancing the delivery of care for our community.”

Included in the new construction are larger pediatric and psychiatric emergency areas, which opened in January 2013, as well as “Fast Track,” Lincoln’s urgent care treatment area for adults with non-emergencies, which opened in February 2013. The completion of the adult ED area is the final phase of the expansion project and will be available to patients mid-May.

“This milestone is a great step forward in growing HHC Lincoln Medical Center as a state-of-the-art facility,” stated Milton Nuñez, Executive Director, HHC Lincoln Medical Center. “This expansion allows us to continue providing safe and effective emergency care with the latest technology. Whenever a medical institution grows, so does its capacity for providing the quality healthcare that patients need.”

Dr. Fernando Jara, Lincoln’s Chair of Emergency Medicine, added, “Each year, more than 15,000 visits to Lincoln’s ED result in hospital admission, and of those visits approximately 2,000 patients are admitted directly to the hospital’s Intensive Care Units. The enhanced space equips our dedicated team of healthcare professionals with the tools necessary to quickly identify life threatening situations and initiate immediate care.”

The new ED has an elegant ambulatory entrance for walk-in patients and a dedicated EMS entrance for ambulance visits. The walk-in area includes separate adult and pediatric waiting rooms, with behavioral health services housed in a new and enlarged section. The newly designed triage and registration areas increase patient privacy and confidentiality. Upon entering the ED, patients are met by a Patient Navigator to help guide them during their visit to the ED.

Dedicated asthma treatment areas with skilled professionals and ancillary support staff, including respiratory therapists, will continue to help meet the needs of the community in a safe and comfortable environment. The expanded ED now has four dedicated trauma bays, to enable clinicians to effectively manage multiple traumas, as well as mass casualty incidents. The ED will feature updated, state-of-the-art technology, such as bedside ultrasonography machines to further improve the quality of care and aid in the timely identification of life-threatening emergencies.

Over the past decade, the communities served by HHC Lincoln Medical Center have experienced 15 percent population growth and has the highest rates of ED visits, hospitalization, and mortality due to asthma in New York State. According to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Lincoln Medical Center’s catchment area also has some of the highest rates for diabetes, heart disease, HIV and mental health disorders.

 

About Lincoln Medical Center

Lincoln Medical Center, located at 234 East 149th Street in the Bronx, is a 347-bed, Acute Care Level 1 Trauma Center with the busiest single site emergency department in the region. Winner of the 2012 American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Finalist Award, the hospital emphasizes primary care and specialty medicine and uses the latest advances in medical science. Lincoln Medical Center is a member of the Generations+/Northern Manhattan Health Network, a healthcare conglomerate which is part of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC).

About HHC

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) is a $6.7 billion integrated healthcare delivery system with its own 420,000 member health plan, MetroPlus, and is the largest municipal healthcare organization in the country. HHC serves 1.4 million New Yorkers every year and more than 475,000 are uninsured. HHC provides medical, mental health and substance abuse services through its 11 acute care hospitals, five skilled nursing facilities, six large diagnostic and treatment centers and more than 70 community based clinics. HHC Health and Home Care also provides in-home services for New Yorkers. HHC was the 2008 recipient of the National Quality Forum and The Joint Commission's John M. Eisenberg Award for Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality. For more information, visit www.nyc.gov/hhc or find us on facebook.com/nycHHC or twitter.com/HHCnyc.