Bayside hospital opens new addition this week

Image source: NYDN

Crain’s reports that St. Mary’s Healthcare System for Children, a facility in Bayside that treats children from around the NYC metro area who are dealing with the toughest of situations – such as burn victims and premature babies – is going to open a new addition to the hospital on Thursday, September 27. The 90,000-square-feet, 97 bed new patient pavilion will help with the overcrowding the hospital has experienced. The status for a long time has been a space that was “overcrowded with strollers, wheelchairs and cribs lining some of the narrow, brown-tiled hallways because the 97-bed hospital had simply run out of space.”

Aside from the likely relief everyone involved feels about having more space, the way it was funded is also an inspiration. Within a total price tag of $114 million for the development, the hospital launched its fundraising campaign in 2008 with the expectation to raise $11 million from private sources; three times that amount, at $33 million was raised, much of it from local businesses big and small, although there were some large gifts made by affluent interests (for example, Pat Di Filipo, an executive vice president at Turner Construction, helped bring in $1.2 million). In the words of St. Mary’s president Jeffrey Frerichs, “The magnitude of support has been miraculous.”

That said, the expansion did not go 100% smoothly. At one point in 2011, they hit some bumps in the road with the local community, with neighbors challenging that “the city had improperly issued building permits.” The hospital asserted that they “designed the $114 million project to minimize impact on its neighbors.” The Board of Standards and Appeal rejected the community’s challenge, and, as they say, the rest is history.

As mentioned above, St. Mary’s plays an important role in the caring for ailing children, and they have also been a leader in developing programs to help kids in severe medical need. They “built the nation’s first pediatric palliative-care unit and the city’s first traumatic brain-injury and coma recovery program for children. It also established home-care services for children with HIV/AIDS.”

In September 2011, a “topping off” ceremony was held, which means the last beam of steel was placed at the top of the building. This was such an important moment in development of the pavilion, they recorded it on video, which you can see here.

For more details about what the new patient pavilion will provide, head to the St. Mary’s site. In their words, this addition will “transform the lives of children for generations to come.”

Queens: Unsung hospital roars back [Crain’s]
Controversial plan to expand St. Mary’s Hospital for Children in Bayside gets boost from city panel [NYDN]