Mount Sinai Hospital Files Plans for $600M Redesign of NY’s Beth Israel Medical Center

By Ilana Siyance

Mount Sinai Health System has filed a Certificate of Need (CON) application with the NYS Department of Health for a redesigned Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital and an upgraded New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. The CON application for the $600 million project, filed on Tuesday July 22nd, also includes plans for a new Mount Sinai Comprehensive Behavioral Health Center.

“Today marks an important step forward in Mount Sinai’s $1 billion commitment to rebuild, renew and revitalize health care for the Downtown community,” said Dr. Jeremy Boal , President of Mount Sinai Downtown, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System. “From the new Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital and enhanced New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, to an expanded and enhanced ambulatory network and a new Mount Sinai Comprehensive Behavioral Health Center, we are transforming how health care services are delivered to New Yorkers.”

The construction will be part of the Health System’s $1 billion downtown transformation. Mount Sinai Health System, one of New York’s largest integrated medical and academic health systems, will move and then close its Mount Sinai Beth Israel to a new site two blocks away. The current hospital and ER, acquired in a deal with Continuum Health Partners in 2013, will remain open and operational while the construction is underway. Demolition of the new site at Second Avenue between East 13th and 14th streets is already complete. Mount Sinai hopes to receive the necessary permits and break ground in early 2020. As per the company’s press release, the new building, slated to open in 2023, will feature all private inpatient beds, cutting edge cardiac and neurologic interventional services, an operative platform, as well as a state-of-the-art emergency department. As per Crain’s NY the new hospital will have only 70 beds, compared with the 636 beds that the current hospital is licensed for (though only half of those beds are actually in use).

The newly built campus will be shared with the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, to offer improved Ophthalmologic and ENT clinical services, including a 24/7 eye trauma emergency department, as well as access to state-of-the-art imaging, pharmacy, and labs.

Also included in the application is a plan to create a $140 million behavioral health center, to be known as The Mount Sinai Comprehensive Behavioral Health Center. The project is slated to be the largest private investment in Behavioral Health in New York’s history. The goal is to create a “One-Stop” location for psychiatric, addiction, physical health, and social service needs. The new downtown facility, located at the site of the current Rivington House on the Lower East Side will offer a holistic approach to mental health, with all the services currently available at Mount Sinai Beth Israel plus a host of new services. It will be equipped with 135 beds, including 115 licensed by the state.

“The model of care for the Mount Sinai Behavioral Health Comprehensive Center will not be available anywhere else in New York. This Center exemplifies Mount Sinai’s deep and longstanding commitment to behavioral health, and it is not simply a re-location or addition of services,” said Dr. Sabina Lim, Vice President and Chief of Strategy, Behavioral Health, for the Mount Sinai Health System. “It is a new, transformational model of care for people with behavioral health conditions that creates a fully integrated continuum of care in one location.”