Coney Island Hospital picks up the pieces

Limited medical care is available at Coney Island Hospital, despite extensive damage from Hurricane Sandy, with work ongoing to get the hospital completely up and running by January.

Although inpatient services have been suspended, the hospital offers walk-in, non-emergency services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and extended clinic hours.

New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) President Alan Aviles toured the restoration efforts at Coney Island Hospital on November 20, along with the hospital’s Executive Director Arthur Wagner, Medical Officer Dr. John Maese and Chief Nursing Officer Terry Mancher.

The main building, emergency room and outpatient service areas were badly damaged, but Wagner said that crews are working “around the clock” to have them functional by next month. The buildings’ electrical, mechanical and heating systems also need repairs and replacements, after the storm surge completely flooded out the 10-foot-high basement.

Although the hospital did evacuate during the storm, its doors were open just four days later. Patients at the hospital when Sandy struck were taken to private hospitals and other sister facilities within the HHC system, including Kings County Hospital, where Coney Island Hospital’s cancer patients are receiving treatment.

“Coney Island Hospital serves many of the communities hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy and the temporary closure after the storm represented a loss of healthcare services,” said Aviles.

“After the evacuation, we were completely focused on providing care as quickly as possible to this community that was so devastated by the storm,” Maese said. “When we opened our doors just four days after, it was like a beacon of light in an area where the storm had moved houses off their foundations, scattered personal possessions and memories, and left many residents, including our patients and staff, in despair.”

Mancher added, “We were in the dark and ankle deep in water, but we never lost sight of our main concern: the health and safety of our patients. We provided medical care and we also provided a hand to hold and the reassurance that everything was going to be okay.”

Coney Island hospital is offering outpatient primary care service for children and adults, and is running adult and pediatric clinics and limited outpatient specialty care, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. 4 p.m. Pharmacy services are also available for prescription renewals from 9 a.m. 5 p.m.

The hospital has also dispatched three mobile medical units to areas in Brooklyn and Staten Island to service communities that are isolated from any primary care. Limited emergency room services will open by the end of this month and full emergency room services and hospital admissions will begin in January, 2013.