New York Hospital Queens on Thursday opened its seven-floor West Wing with a ceremonial ribbon cutting at the Flushing main campus.
The 190,000-square-foot wing will add 80 beds to the hospital, and raises to 519 the hospital's certified bed capacity. The wing and a three-level parking garage took more than three years to complete at a cost of $210 million.
NYHQ President/CEO Stephen S. Mills said the wing was completed despite a deep recession and great uncertainty in the healthcare sector.
"Right here in Queens we saw several institutions close while our expansion project was underway," Mills said in a media release.
The wing includes medical/surgical units with private and semi-private rooms, and centralizes high-demand cardiovascular and orthopedic services. The ground floor includes an ambulatory surgery center with 10 operating rooms and 33 recovery beds.
The wing increases the hospital's capacity to perform surgical and interventional procedures with a hybrid operating suite for endovascular and interventional radiology procedures that can be converted to perform vascular procedures.
The lobby welcomes visitors with messages in the languages used most in the diverse neighborhoods of Queens County.
The wing was designed with the structural capacity to support additional floors, and as the project proceeded, two floors were added to the original plan. They will remain vacant space for the near future.
New York Hospital Queens is a member of the New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System and an affiliate of the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Primary funding for the project came through the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
John Commins is a content specialist and online news editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.