Coney Island Hospital Still Not 100 Percent
It has been six months since Superstorm Sandy caused millions of dollars of damage to Coney Island Hospital and even though the facility has reopened, it might take another year for the hospital to be fully restored, according to a report by New York 1.
Right now, the hospital is offering about two-thirds of the services it offered before Sandy shut it down and there are significant shortages yet to be overcome.
“The emergency department is operating in about 40 percent of the space prior to what it did to the storm, 911 receiving we were bringing in medicine patients and pediatric patients,” said Coney Island Hospital Executive Director Arthur Wagner.
The in-patient pediatric wing is still down and the MRI/CAT scan room is under construction. Workers are trying to strike a careful balance between providing needed services, rebuilding and keeping areas near active construction zones clean.
Despite the setbacks, Wagner credits his staff of 2,800 for giving all they could following the storm.
“They had houses and family that were affected and they still provided those services,” Wagner told New York 1.
To protect the hospital from suffering another huge power outage in the face of potential future flooding, a new electrical room is being built in a room on higher ground. Until that project is completed, the hospital is currently receiving power from neighboring buildings.
The hospital is also considering future projects that might include constructing an elevated emergency building and a water barrier surrounding the hospital’s campus. These projects would require large governmental funding.
