In addition to Jamaica, MediSys operates Flushing Hospital, Peninsula Hospital and Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center. All four could be affected by proposed state budget cuts.
Jamaica would lose $42 million. Flushing would lose more than $14 million, Brookdale more than $76 million and Peninsula almost $2 million.
Nowhere are the burdens felt more than in the emergency room. The closing of Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica and St. John’s Queens Hospital in Elmhurst earlier this year heavily affected Jamaica’s ER, which has seen a 12 percent increase in traffic over last year. That number is predicted to go up to 15 percent by the end of 2009. Hospital admissions have increased by 8 percent, a figure also expected to rise by year’s end.
Like Jamaica, Mary Immaculate was a level-1 trauma center, but since its closure patients now go to Jamaica. Built for 60,000 visits a year, Jamaica’s ER will now handle between 130,000 and 140,000 visits this year.
“Instead of seeing more cuts we should see less,” said Pedersen. “We are seeing very high numbers, and we need to make sure we have the resources that we need to deal with the volume that we see.”
So far, the hospital has been able to withstand the pressure by making adjustments where money and space have allowed.
The entire first floor of the main building is now used for emergency services, a result of strategic restructuring that includes monitoring critical care and chest pain patients from the same desk. This past spring, part of the main building’s first-floor gift shop was made into a fast-track area to treat minor cases in the emergency room.
Another major project is under way on the building’s sixth floor. What was once an auditorium used for residency training programs is now a wing with 16 serviceable beds, all of which are already in use. The wing will have a total of 40 beds by the end of the year.
The hospital used its internal team of engineers to make those changes without going over budget, according to Pedersen, who said the expansion and renovation costs have come out of the hospital’s operational budget.
Another new feature, the renovated Trump Pavilion, has helped somewhat in improving the flow of patients. The facility provides care for short-term rehab patients, and was originally planned to have 204 beds but ended up with 20 more. The center has a serviceable chapel, spacious lounge areas and a gym. Future amenities will include a garden, gift shop and hair salon.
“Although it’s great to have that facility, it’s not a hospital,” said Jamaica’s director of public affairs Michael Hinck, adding that the hospital still has a large volume to deal with.
According to Hinck and Pedersen, the main hospital could use more staffing and up to date equipment in certain areas, but without a big endowment or capital it is forced to deal with what it has. This means using “every square inch of the house.”
The top priority is always the ER.
“You have to think ahead,” Hinck said.
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