BROOKLYN COMMUNITY BOARD 6
YOUTH/HUMAN SERVICES/EDUCATION COMMITTEE
JANUARY 27, 2016
ATTENDANCE:
PRESENT:
EXCUSED:
ABSENT:
GUESTS:
***MINUTES***
Update and discussion with representatives for NYU Langone on their current operation and future plans for their NYU Langone Cobble Hill medical facility at Atlantic Avenue and Hicks Street.
Presentation from NYU Langone to YHSE Committee meeting Jan 27, 2016
Dr Gary Kalkut gave a presentation on the Emergency room at NYU Langone Cobble Hill and brief update on the Ambulatory care center being built
NYU merged with Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn becoming NYU Lutheran. The NYU Lutheran facility will become the hub for NYU in Brooklyn, NYU Langone Cobble Hill will be the hub for Ambulatory care for NYU
NYU is committing $200 million to updating Lutheran’s systems
The Cobble Hill Emergency room saw 15,000 patients in 2015, started with a fast ramp up which has slowed but growth is still occurring. 30% of those patients came by ambulance
Half of the people that needed to be admitted to a hospital went to Brooklyn Hospitals. The emergency room gets 45-50 patients a day, of which 8% are admitted to hospitals. There are 1-3 physicians on o duty at any particular time.
He then went on to describe the Ambulatory care center being built. It will be 160,000 square feet, have a cancer care center, a pharmacy, imaging, and primary care among other services.
They expect to have 70 doctors affiliated with the center and 400 employees, not all full time.
He then took questions from the attendees, of whom there were five YHSE committee members and about 30 community members
In short the questions were mostly about traffic around the facility. Dr Kalkut was unable to answer most of the questions mostly saying that there was a traffic impact study being done by Sam Schwartz that would be completed sometime in February
Several people expressed concern that the ambulance entrance would be on Hicks St due to the congestion on that street. Jerry Armor asked why the ambulance entrance had been decided prior to the traffic study. Again the Dr. just explained that the architects made the decision.
A couple of people raised concern that the new facility would not provide the same level of care that LICH had since LICH was a full hospital and this was an ambulatory care center. They referred to the medicine being practiced as just rural or wartime medicine . Dr Kalkut disagreed with that sentiment. He explained that the reason for this facility was that the way medicine is being provided has changed, length of stay has decreased, and most services are outpatient services.
One person asked about medical waste saying that she saw it lot since she lives next to a doctor’s office. The Dr. said that NYU doesn’t work that way, meaning the won’t let medical waste lay around on the street.