Hospital in Washington Heights To Quadruple Emergency Capacity
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NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is planning to build a $50 million pediatric emergency room at its Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in Washington Heights.
The new facility will bear the name of Alexandra and Steven Cohen, in recognition of the couple’s $50 million gift, the hospital announced. Plans call for a 25,000-square-foot facility that will quadruple the capacity of the hospital’s emergency department, which treats 50,000 patients each year.
The project, which hospital officials estimated would take two to three years to construct, is the latest in a string of expansions for the hospital. Construction of the $120 million children’s hospital, situated at 165th Street and Broadway, was completed just five years ago.
In November, the hospital held a topping-out ceremony for the $242 million Vivian and Seymour Milstein Family Heart Center in Washington Heights, which is expected to open in 2010. One year ago, the hospital opened a 13-story ambulatory care and medical education building, the Weill Greenberg Center, on the Upper East Side. The hospital is also in the midst of expanding its adult emergency department, and it is constructing a cardiovascular treatment center, an advanced therapeutic services center, and a cogeneration plant.
Hospital officials said a new pediatric emergency room would serve a growing number of pediatric patients. “In the last ten years, we have experienced a sharp increase in the number of pediatric emergency visits,” NewYork-Presbyterian’s president and CEO, Dr. Herbert Pardes, said in a statement announcing the gift. “We are deeply grateful to Alexandra and Steven Cohen for their vision and generosity.”
Mr. Cohen is a founder and chief executive officer of the asset management firm SAC Capital Advisors of Stamford, Conn. In 2006, the Cohens donated $5 million to the hospital to create the position of Alexandra and Steven Cohen Chief of Pediatric Cardiology.
“Steve and I are pleased to have the opportunity to make a meaningful difference for children and their families in the community in which I was raised,” said Mrs. Cohen, who was born at the children’s hospital, then called Babies & Children’s Hospital.
