Bellevue Reopens Trauma and Inpatient Services for First Time Since Sandy
Bellevue is back.
The hospital, which shuttered during Hurricane Sandy,
fully re-opened for the first time since the storm on Thursday, restoring full
ambulance and trauma services and reopening of all 828 inpatient beds, the New
York City Health and Hospitals Corporation announced.
The hospital was evacuated on Oct. 31 when it lost power
in the aftermath of the superstorm, with staff eventually carrying patients
down darkened stairs with the help of the National Guard after conditions there
became untenable.
Bellevue reopened its non-emergency services late last
year, but was unable to fully reopen its emergency room until Thursday,
referring trauma patients to St. Luke's and Mount Sinai hospitals among others
and leaving much of lower Manhattan without a nearby trauma center.
“After three months of not having full trauma services
for lower Manhattan, now we’re back in the game,” said said Steven Alexander,
the chief operating officer at Bellevue. “Our area hospitals have been somewhat
overwhelmed taking care of the patients that normally got care at Bellevue, in
particular for trauma — so we’re happy to be able to provide that service to
the community.”
The hospital is still working to restore a few of its
outpatient clinics, such as the chemotherapy clinic and the cancer specialty
clinic, which have been relocated to other HHC facilities. Those are expected
to return to Bellevue on Feb. 19, said Alexander.
When the storm hit, the hospital’s basement, which
contained over 250 pieces of equipment, was flooded by millions of gallons of
water, HHC said.
Bellevue re-opened several primary care clinics, the
24-hour walk-in urgent care, and outpatient pharmacy services on Nov. 19. On
Dec. 19, the hospital resumed its emergency department in limited capacity and
began receiving ambulance for non-critical cases two weeks later.
“The damage has all been resolved, and all the hospital’s
utilities, including the emergency backups are in place,” said Alexander.
To protect itself from future disasters, much of the
critical equipment, such as the electrical switching gear, has been relocated
out of the basement to higher elevation areas on the first floor.
“There are many other systems that were repaired in the
basement in order to allow us to have this aggressive re-opening date, but we
have plans for relocating some of those major systems to upper floors in the
near future,” said Alexander.
Comments
Post a Comment