Executive Summary:

NYU Langone Medical Center seeks proposes to open a new

Ambulatory Care Center in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn at
the former site of the shuttered Long Island College Hospital (LICH).
This new 160,000 square foot facility, the NYU Langone Ambulatory
Care Center in Cobble Hill, will include both Article 28 and non-Article
28 programs. This new center will provide Brooklyn residents with 21st
century care, focused on the provision of care in the outpatient setting
rather than the inpatient setting that LICH had been providing in an
inpatient setting.
LICH, a 506-bed teaching hospital, was founded in 1858 and in May of
2011 became part of SUNY Downstates University Hospital. The
Trustees of the State University of New York voted to close the hospital
in 2013 because of its significant financial losses. Before closing its
doors as a full-service hospital, Long Island College Hospital accounted
for over 9,000 ambulatory surgery cases, over 14,000 discharges 70%
of which were admitted through the Emergency Department and over
43,000 treat and release Emergency Department visits. With
healthcare rapidly refocusing its efforts from inpatient care to
outpatient care, LICH was not prepared for this change and as an
antiquated inpatient facility could no longer successfully compete in
the market.
NYU Langone Medical Center requests approval from the Public Health
and Health Planning Council (PHHPC) for the Article 28 programs that
will be located in this new facility. The Article 28 projects include a
relocated Free-standing Emergency Department that is currently in
operation at 83 Amity Street, Brooklyn as well as a free-standing,
multi-specialty Ambulatory Surgery Center, a Cancer Center, a
Laboratory, Pharmacy and a Diagnostic Imaging Center.
The goals of this project are to provide needed services to Brooklyn
residents that are currently in short supply as a result of the closure of
LICH and other Brooklyn hospitals. These hospital closures have
resulted in Brooklyn residents obtaining care in overburdened Brooklyn
hospitals or traveling to Manhattan for their care. The proposed project
will provide Brooklyn residents, especially those residing in Brooklyn
Heights/ Fort Greene, Bushwick, Red Hook/Park Slope, Williamsburg,
East New York/Brownsville, Bedford Stuyvesant, Crown Heights and
Flatbush with needed emergency services, easy access to ambulatory
surgery including endoscopies and colonoscopies, cancer care from a
National Cancer Institute (NCI) designated facility, and diagnostic
radiology screening services for breast cancer, cardiac disease as well

as routine diagnostic imaging. These services will be supported by a

laboratory and pharmacy.
NYU Hospitals Center began to provide emergency department care in
late October, 2014 in the existing Free-standing Emergency
Department that was formerly run by SUNY Downstate. This facility,
located at 83 Amity Street, is less than an ideal space and will not be
able to accommodate the projected visit volume or provide amenities
that patients expect. Since the facility re-opened in November, 2014,
there have been over 4,400 visits, which if annualized amounts to
10,600 visits.
The relocated Freestanding Emergency Department (ED) will be
situated on the first floor and will occupy 19,202 square feet. The new
ED will provide 10 patient bays as well as 12 private flex patient
spaces that include 4 observation rooms, 4 treatment rooms (eye and
safe room), an isolation room, an OB/GYN room and a Bariatric room
with a ceiling mounted lift from the bed to the bathroom and a
psychiatric room. In addition, there will be 2 in-patient beds. Other
patient spaces include a resuscitation room, two triage patient rooms,
and a decontamination room. The ED will have radiology support
including 2 x-ray rooms and a CT room.
There is also a need for a multi-specialty ambulatory surgery facility in
Brooklyn. During 2012, LICH accounted for over 9,000 ambulatory
surgery procedures and from 2011 to 2013, the number of ambulatory
surgery procedures for Brooklyn residents remained stable at around
205,000. Approximately, 28% of Brooklyn residents had an ambulatory
surgery procedure in a Manhattan facility during 2011 and this
increased to 31% in 2013, a 9.3% increase. With the closure of LICH,
there is a need for an additional multi-specialty ambulatory surgery
facility to provide services to patients in their community and lessen
the burden on other Brooklyn hospitals. The new 20,665 square foot
Ambulatory Surgery Center will be located on the third floor and will
consist of four 450 sq. ft. Class C Operating Rooms, a sterile core, and
2 endoscopy procedure rooms. The pre- and post-operative suite
(PACU) will contain 20 patient positions as well as a block room. In
addition, there will be a decontamination room, flash sterilizer room,
soiled workroom, clean workroom and steam sterilizer. The sterile
supply room will be adjacent to the clean workroom.
Cancer continues to be an important cause of disease and mortality
among residents of Brooklyn. In fact, it ranks among the top 3 leading
causes of death among Brooklyn residents. The leading categories of
cancer deaths for Brooklyn residents include cancer of the trachea,
bronchus and lung; colorectal cancer and breast cancer. The annual

incidence of new cancer cases among Brooklyn residents is 11,400 and

the average annual mortality from cancer is 3,650. During FY 2014,
Brooklyn residents accounted for over 30,500 visits to the NYU Clinical
Cancer Center. The proposed Cancer Center at Cobble Hill will provide
both current NYU Hospitals Center patients who reside in Brooklyn as
well as new patients with easy access to NYU's NCI-designated Clinical
Cancer Center clinicians, research protocols, and chemotherapy
infusions close to home. The 13,891 square foot Cancer Center will be
located on the fourth floor and will include both phlebotomy and
infusion services. The Cancer Center will contain twenty patient
positions for infusion and 2 fast track positions. A pharmacy will be
located adjacent to the infusion bays for quick medication turnaround.
In addition, a rapid-response lab (STAT lab) will also be situated on this
floor. Also planned for this facility is a pneumatic tube system with
stations within the departments for rapid delivery of medications to
and from the pharmacy.
A 14,944 square foot Diagnostic Imaging Center is planned for the
cellar level of the building and will include general x-ray modalities in
support of the other services in the building as well as mammography,
bone density, nuclear cardiology, nuclear camera, and an echo stress
room. Providing Brooklyn residents with easy access to mammography
will improve access for the early detection of Breast Cancer, one of the
most prevalent cancers among female Brooklyn residents. The noninvasive cardiology modalities, including nuclear cardiology, nuclear
camera and the echo stress room will target the boroughs primary
cause of mortality, heart disease, permitting for early diagnosis and
treatment which should make a significant impact on the mortality rate
from this disease entity.
The NYU Langone Ambulatory Care Center in Cobble Hill, a twenty-first
century facility, has been designed to address the current and future
healthcare needs of Brooklyn residents. It is consistent with NYU
Langone Medical Centers Community Service Implementation Plan and
strategic plan because it will enable the Medical Center to provide
world-class, patient centered, integrated care to patients in the
communities it serves.
Please note that the architectural components of this project will be
reviewed by DASNY.