HHC President Alan D. Aviles Announces Opening of Outpatient Primary Care Services at Bellevue Hospital Center
Nov 19, 2012
New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) President Alan D. Aviles today announced the opening of limited ambulatory primary care services for adult and pediatric patients at Bellevue Hospital Center following the evacuation and closing of the facility on October 31 due to damage from Hurricane Sandy. Mr. Aviles was joined by HHC’s South Manhattan Network Sr. Vice President Lynda Curtis and Bellevue Hospital Medical Director Dr. Nathan Link.
Starting Monday, November 19th, Bellevue Hospital will offer walk-in non-emergency services 24 a day, 7 days a week and will open limited adult and pediatric outpatient primary care clinics and routine OB-GYN services to women from 8am – 8 pm, Monday – Friday. Limited emergency care services are expected to open in December and the hospital will resume full operations in February 2013.
New York residents seek information and
appointments at Bellevue Hospital.
HHC President Aviles with Bellevue Medical
Director Dr. Nathan Link.
New Yorkers at Bellevue Hospital’s opening.
“We are very pleased to welcome back patients and staff to Bellevue,” said Aviles. “It was only a few weeks ago that this historic public hospital suffered devastating damage from a monster storm that required the evacuation of all patients. For the first time in 275 years of serving its community, Bellevue was forced to close. Today, our doors are once again open 24/7 while we continue the slow but certain road toward recovery with a shared sense of purpose focused, as always, on our commitment to our patients and the community we serve.”
“Hospital maintenance and construction staff have been working diligently seven days a week since the evacuation to ensure clean-up and repairs were done safely and quickly to begin serving our patients today,” said Lynda Curtis.
“We are thrilled to be back home,” said Dr. Nathan Link. “Our physicians, nurses, technicians and others healthcare professionals endured a great emotional toll through the challenging evacuation process and closure of the hospital. Opening these clinics today is the best medicine we can get to cure the stress, sadness and anxiety we have been feeling.”
Hospital staff continue the clean-up and restoration to the other parts of the facility which sustained significant damage to the electrical, water, steam and elevator systems when the flood waters surged into the hospital’s 180,000 square-foot basement.
Bellevue Hospital is not the only HHC facility that sustained significant damage from the storm. Coney Island Hospital, Metropolitan Hospital, and Coler-Goldwater, the long-term care facility on Roosevelt Island, also sustained serious damage. HHC’s Harlem Hospital Center sustained modest damage.
“We are grateful for the $300 million in emergency restoration-related capital construction funds allocated by Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City Council last week for the benefit of our public hospitals,” added Aviles.
Following the evacuation, Bellevue patients were transferred to a number of private hospitals across the city and to other sister facilities in the HHC system: Metropolitan, Lincoln, Jacobi, North Central Bronx, Harlem, Queens, Elmhurst, Kings County and Woodhull. Bellevue’s outpatient cancer care services are now being provided at HHC’s Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn. Bellevue staff who provide specialty care and emergency services will continue working at other HHC facilities.
“I have never been more proud of the men and women of HHC than I have been in the past few weeks,” said. Aviles. “They have risen to every challenge and have shown our city once again the depth of our collective commitment and compassion as our City’s premier healthcare safety net system.”
For more information about services available at Bellevue Hospital Center or to connect to other services, patients should call 212-562-5555 or 311.
Contact: Ian Michaels (HHC) (212) 788-3339
About Bellevue
Bellevue is a member of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) and is America’s oldest continuously operating hospital, established in 1736. Affiliated with the NYU School of Medicine, Bellevue is a major referral center for highly complex cases. The 828-bed hospital has more than 4,000 employees and runs an extensive ambulatory care program that provides more than 500,000 outpatient primary care and specialty care visits annually. Its emergency room sees more than 125,000 visits every year. Clinical centers of excellence include: Emergency Medicine and Trauma Care; Cardiovascular Services; Designated Regional Perinatal Center and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (ICU); Comprehensive Children’s Psychiatric Emergency Program; and Cancer Services.
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, MetroPlusHealth, 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, four 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.nychhc.org/hhc or find us on facebook.com/NYCHealthSystem or twitter.com/NYCHealthSystem.