Reinventing Emergency Care: NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center Breaks Ground on New Adult Emergency Department

Supported by trustees and friends of the institution, including $15 million from Morgan Stanley and its employees, new emergency department will offer twice the space in a high-tech, patient-friendly environment

Oct 7, 2013

NEW YORK

NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center today broke ground on its Morgan Stanley Adult Emergency Department. The new facility will provide patients with expanded treatment space, improved triaging, upgraded infrastructure and equipment, and an enhanced physical environment. The Morgan Stanley Adult Emergency Department, an expansion and renovation of the current emergency department located at 168th Street and Broadway in Manhattan, will open in stages over the next four years.

The Morgan Stanley Adult Emergency Department is supported by a lead gift of $15 million from Morgan Stanley, the global financial services company, and its employees. In addition, a number of trustees and friends of the hospital have contributed to the project, including major support from Stephen and Pilar Crespi Robert, trustees of the Source of Hope Foundation. Mr. Robert is also a trustee of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

The facility was officially announced at a groundbreaking today, attended by senior leaders from the hospital and Morgan Stanley.

"The Emergency Department at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia has always been a critical resource for this community," said Dr. Steven J. Corwin, CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. "As we have done for the children of Washington Heights through the Alexandra & Steven Cohen Children's Emergency Department, through the new Morgan Stanley Adult Emergency Department, we look forward to providing transformational emergency services and the same level of outstanding, technologically advanced, and patient-centered emergency care to the adult community as well. We are extremely grateful to the employees of Morgan Stanley, Stephen and Pilar Crespi Robert, and many other donors for their leadership and generosity, and for making this exciting facility possible."

Once complete, the Morgan Stanley Adult Emergency Department will comprise 45,000 square feet, double the current size, and will be equipped with 88 treatment bays, also double the current capacity. The size of each bay will also expand, improving the patient experience and delivery of bedside care.

Recognizing that patients arrive to the emergency department with a range of issues and levels of severity, the facility will offer improved triaging and tailored treatment areas. Acute Care Emergency Districts will include specialized treatment bays for critical care, offering patients quick emergency intervention aided by state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment tools to mitigate long-term damage from stroke, cardiac arrest, and other acute conditions. The Rapid Medical Evaluation Unit will provide prompt evaluation, pain relief, and testing for noncritical, walk-in patients, who make up about 70 percent of emergency department visits. An expanded Comprehensive Psychiatric Evaluation Program will increase the emergency department's ability to provide humane, expert care in a dedicated space to patients with psychiatric disorders, reducing anxiety and supporting the spectrum of special needs.

"In a space designed specifically to enhance efficiency and comfort for patients and their families, our staff will be able to provide excellent care across the spectrum of illness. Ambulatory, noncritical patients will be expedited to receive timely evaluation and treatment, while our sickest patients will benefit from the latest in innovative technology, advanced imaging, and critical care," says Dr. James Giglio, director of emergency medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia and associate clinical professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center.

A Legacy of Support from Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley has supported NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital for more than four decades. In the early 1990s, Morgan Stanley and NewYork-Presbyterian worked together to expand and modernize the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit, which opened in 1998 and named in honor of the firm. The success of that campaign encouraged Morgan Stanley to accept a challenge to raise $50 million for a new children's hospital. With the leadership of John Mack, then the chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley; Peter Karches, its president and chief operating officer at the time; and Morgan Stanley's senior management team, and the incredible generosity of its employees, Morgan Stanley raised more than $62 million, making possible the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital at NewYork-Presbyterian. The 10-story children's hospital opened its doors in November 2003, just down the block from the site of the new Morgan Stanley Adult Emergency Department.

In addition to offering financial support, Morgan Stanley employees also have served as leaders on the hospital's board of trustees, dating back to 1973 and continuing to today. Beyond the board of trustees, dozens of employees serve on leadership committees within the hospital.

"The Morgan Stanley Adult Emergency Department reflects our longstanding commitment to support institutions providing world-class medical care," said James Gorman, chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley. "Over the past ten years, our relationship with New York-Presbyterian has expanded significantly — first with the opening of the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital in 2003, and now with the revitalization of the Adult Emergency Department. We are honored to make these critical investments benefiting our community, our employees, and their families."

Emergency Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital provides state-of-the-art evaluation and treatment for patients with a full spectrum of emergency medical needs. In 2012, some 275,000 patients were treated in the emergency departments, with the most common serious complaints and diagnoses being chest pain, heart failure, infectious diseases, cerebrovascular accidents, abdominal pain, and gastrointestinal bleeding. Other common diagnoses encountered include pneumonia and respiratory diseases, abscesses, lacerations and orthopedic and rheumatologic complaints. The hospital has four adult emergency departments, located at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian/The Allen Hospital, and NewYork-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital. It also has two pediatric emergency departments at the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital and at the Komansky Center for Children's Health, providing a level of expertise and range of services and resources dedicated to children in need of emergency care. The Emergency Departments of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital are top centers for emergency care and are officially designated as 911 Ambulance-Receiving Centers. Among its services are Level 1 Adult Trauma and Level 1 Pediatric Trauma services.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, based in New York City, is one of the nation's largest and most comprehensive hospitals, with some 2,600 beds. In 2012, the Hospital had nearly 2 million inpatient and outpatient visits, including 12,758 deliveries and 275,592 visits to its emergency departments. NewYork-Presbyterian's 6,144 affiliated physicians and 20,154 staff provide state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory and preventive care in all areas of medicine at six major centers: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian/The Allen Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division and NewYork-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital. One of the most comprehensive health care institutions in the world, the Hospital is committed to excellence in patient care, research, education and community service. NewYork-Presbyterian is the #1 hospital in the New York metropolitan area and is consistently ranked among the best academic medical institutions in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report. The Hospital has academic affiliations with two of the nation's leading medical colleges: Weill Cornell Medical College and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

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