New York City Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health Director of Strategic Initiatives and Public Affairs Bridgette Ingraham-Roberts spoke at the November 17th meeting of the Madison-Marine-Homecrest Civic Association (MMHCA), held at the Carmine Carro Community Center in Marine Park.
Formerly Coney Island Hospital, the local medical center is undergoing change on multiple fronts — a new name, an entirely new building and renovations to its existing building.
The new building, the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital, is expected to admit its first patients early in 2023.
“We are at a pivotal moment of transformation at South Brooklyn Health,” Ingraham-Roberts said in an interview after her presentation. “We are there to continue providing the care to all our current patients who’ve always been coming to us, but also to let the broader community know that we’re there for them and they can come to us for their care.”
Ingraham-Roberts explained that Coney Island Hospital is rebranding itself as the South Brooklyn Health Campus to better reflect the patients it serves — people from all over south Brooklyn, plus the eastern side of Staten Island and the Rockaways, not just residents of Coney Island.
“There has been significant investment in building South Brooklyn Health because we truly believe that we will become the destination of choice for you, your family and for the communities in this area,” she said during her presentation.
The Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital will be for inpatient treatments, such as a two-floor behavioral health unit, 80 medical-surgical beds that are each in private rooms, a surgical unit with eight operating rooms equipped with robotic surgery, a geriatric practice, a coronary center, a stroke center and an expanded emergency department.
“We decided to name the hospital building after Ruth Bader Ginsburg because the late Supreme Court justice stood for the values of New York City Health + Hospitals, which are equity,” Ingraham-Roberts said. “Meaning, anyone who walks through the doors of our hospital — regardless of their income, regardless of their immigration status, regardless of their sexual orientation, regardless of their race and ethnicity — can get service at the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital.”
The main building, now the Health and Wellness Center, will be for outpatient services, such as expanded ambulatory services, primary care, hypertension and cardiovascular services, diabetes care and dentistry.
“Coney Island, for a lot of years, wasn’t very appealing for many people, but now we would like to show that they’ve changed and really use them because we are lacking hospitals,” MMHCA President Elizabeth Morrissey said.
Stan Kaplan, a member of the civic association and of the board of directors of South Brooklyn Health, said that he and his neighbors wanted to see the hospital become a level one trauma center. The only trauma center in the area is Kings County Hospital.
Ingraham-Roberts said that, even with the updates to the hospital, it is not any level of trauma center, but the new building does have two adult trauma rooms and one pediatrics trauma room.
Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein also dropped by the meeting to mention that her office has free COVID-19 tests and masks that anyone can stop by for.
