By Amy Zimmer
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — Emergency rooms at East Side hospitals including Beth Israel Medical Center, Bellevue Medical center and NYU Langone Medical Center were inundated with patients when St. Vincent's Hospital closed in April.
Beth Israel was already doubling their emergency department when the West Village hospital shut down. Now, it's NYU's turn. The hospital announced plans this month for a three-year, roughly $70 million renovation that will triple the size of its current ER, from 6,600 square feet to 22,000 square feet.
"The new [emergency department] will maximize efficiencies and new technologies and provide critical separations between ambulance and walk-in patients as well as between adult and pediatric patients," explained NYU hospital spokeswoman Lisa Greiner.
The plans, which were in the works prior to St. Vincent's closure, will also add a dedicated area for pediatric emergency services, Greiner said.
After St. Vincent's closed, NYU's hospital has seen, on average, a 15 percent increase per month in patient visits to the emergency department, Greiner said. In response, additional nurses, physicians, patient care technicians and building service workers were hired, she said.
"It's not that it's the same people working harder and harder," Jessica Kovac, administrative director for NYU's emergency services, recently told Community Board 6, which has expressed concern whether neighborhood ERs will be able to respond to a large scale disaster since the stress of additional patients. "Yes, everyone is working hard, but we have added new people."
The emergency department also added a new position of a greeter nurse, who makes a quick "minute" assessment before a patient even gets to triage to help manage patient flow, Kovac told residents.
Beth Israel's expansion, which was completed in October, has helped it manage "the increase in volume efficiently and effectively," said Jim Mandler, spokesman for Beth Israel, "and as a result of a lot of hard work, the increased volume of patients has had a positive impact on the hospital's bottom line."
Beth Israel has gotten the "brunt" from St. Vincent's closure, according to health department data, Mandler said. In January 2010, the hospital saw an average of 240 people in its ER. By April it was up to 270. Since June, their emergency room has averaged 300 patients a day. It's average daily ambulance visits spiked from 52 in January to more than 75 now.
It started its expansion in response to the closure of the nearby Cabrini Medical Center two years ago.
The hospital also opened several nursing units that had been temporarily closed and provided admitting privileges to 150 physicians who previously had admitting privileges at St. Vincent's.
"It now looks almost like a prophetic vision," Mandler said of the expansion. "We need every inch of it."
