Prominent Leaders Gather to Celebrate NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island Transformation & Campus Name Change

NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio: “The rebirth of New York City is happening before your eyes”

By: Fern Sidman

NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island leadership and staff, public health system executives, members of the Ruth Bader Ginsburg family, local elected officials, and community members came together on Thursday afternoon to celebrate the facility’s new hospital complex to be built as well as the campus name changes. Joining them at the festive gathering were New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio, NYC Health + Hospitals CEO Mitchell Katz, MD, NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island CEO Svetlana Lipyanskaya, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s granddaughter Clara Spera, Theresa Scavo, Chair of Community Advisory Board, Queenie Huling, a patient and other prominent community and governmental leaders.

In place of the current hospital building, planning is underway and funds have been secured to upgrade the facility to serve as an outpatient center, so patients can address all their non-emergent health care needs on the campus. Work is expected to begin once the transition to the new hospital occurs.

The new health care complex, expected to open in 2022, will be renamed NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health to reflect the comprehensive inpatient, surgical, outpatient and specialty services available on the campus and its essential role as the closest hospital to nearly 875,000 New Yorkers in the South Brooklyn community.

Other parts of the campus renovation are expected to be completed spring 2023. Critical patient services will be located above the 500-year floodplain. This project represents the first completely new building on the campus since 2006 and supports the public health system’s broader multi-year redesign to build a competitive, sustainable organization that will continue to offer high-quality and accessible health care to the people of New York City.

The new 11-story hospital building and the existing Tower building within the renovated campus will be jointly named after United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a figure who espoused truth, equality and justice. The new campus name, NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health, and the new hospital name, the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital, were approved on July 29th by the NYC Health + Hospitals Board of Directors, and will become effective in the summer of 2022 when the new building opens.

The redesigned campus will include a new elevated Emergency Department, state of the art operating rooms including robotic surgery, single bedded inpatient beds, a number of modern specialty care – endoscopy and interventional radiology and cardiology services, new entrances from Ocean Parkway, a new flood wall, improved parking for patients and staff, and much more. The redevelopment is part of a major $922.7 million hospital campus renovation funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to demolish, replace and repair flood damaged buildings from Superstorm Sandy.

NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health’s campus transformation will feature:

A new critical services structure building within NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health, Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital with:

A new Emergency Department – housed on the second floor — featuring an ambulance dock and vehicular drop-off with a ramp connecting t the ground level;

A surgical suite comprised of eight state-of-the-art operating rooms, offering robotic surgery;

An endoscopy suite;

Labor and Delivery Unit;

Inpatient dialysis;

80 private medical-surgical beds;

60 behavioral health beds;

Radiology and interventional radiology;

Clinical laboratories, and more.

Mechanical services for the campus will include flood resilient infrastructure for power, heating, cooling, and water systems.

Demolition of the Hammett Pavilion, which now serves Behavioral Health inpatients and outpatients. Inpatient services will be moved into the new hospital, and the outpatient services will be moved into renovated space in the current main building.

A new four-foot concrete flood wall surrounding the perimeter of the campus. At the entrances there will passive lift gates.

Improved campus parking for employees, patients, and visitors.

“Investing in public health is critical for our recovery,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “NYC Health + Hospitals has been on the frontlines of the pandemic, serving all New Yorkers regardless of income or immigration status. I’m thrilled to see this state-of-the-art facility opening in South Brooklyn as we build a recovery for all of us. Even more fitting that one of its buildings is being renamed for a champion of progress and equality, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Her legacy will continue to live on in her hometown borough.”

He added: “Ruth Bader Ginsburg would not accept a world in which women were not valued as much as men, or people of one race valued differently than another, or people with greater income valued more than people with less. Her egalitarianism, which is a true Brooklyn value, is something we honor. And she put herself on the line for it every day. Well, that name on this hospital is going to say something to all Brooklynites. Here’s a place where you’ll get fairness and justice, where you’ll get quality and love and respect. And that is very, very powerful.”

As to the future of New York City, DeBlasio said: “The rebirth of New York City is happening before your eyes. And here in the middle of this moment, we announced something great, a new hospital with the most powerful of names, showing that you cannot stop the city. You just can’t hold New Yorkers down. You cannot stop us. That’s the beauty of this place.

Someday, someone’s going to do a list of everybody from Southern Brooklyn who changed the world, and it’s going to be a very, very long list. In fact, we, even as Brooklynites, even as New Yorkers, don’t even know some of the people who are particularly famous who have had a big impact. We don’t even realize where they are from. I’ll give you an example.

We’re doing these amazing concerts in a couple of weeks now. The Homecoming Concerts, the one in Central Park, literally is going to rival Woodstock in terms of lineup. It’s unbelievable. Who put it together? Clive Davis, legendary music industry figure, one of the greats of modern music in America. Guess where he’s from, everybody? Southern Brooklyn, a graduate of the New York City public schools.”

NYC Health + Hospitals President and CEO Mitchell Katz, MD said, “We are grateful that the family of Ruth Bader Ginsburg has allowed us to honor her memory in this historic way. Justice Ginsburg fought tirelessly for justice and equality, giving voices to the voiceless, and as patients walk into the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital at NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health, they will do so knowing they will receive high quality health services with compassion, dignity, and respect, regardless of their income, gender identity, or immigration status.

On a personal note, as someone whose family are Coney Island natives, I look forward to seeing the greater health transformation in this community continue to flourish as we become more inclusive to the surrounding communities and rich diversity of all of south Brooklyn.”

He added: “I think the South Brooklyn name captures that we love Coney Island, but we’re more than Coney Island. As Svetlana, another South Brooklyn person has said, right, we are a big catchment area. So, I love the new name. And, of course, being able to honor the great justice is just amazing. And I think it’s everything that Health + Hospitals wants to be and is – a place for everybody, that seeks to care for everybody, regardless of their backgrounds. So, thank you all. Thank you to my doctors and my nurses and everyone here. Thank you.”

“The Justice’s family is honored that this important public hospital is building on our mother and grandmother’s Brooklyn roots by giving her name to an institution that will serve so many of South Brooklyn’s health needs,” said the Ginsburg family.

“As a lifelong resident of Brooklyn, today’s announcement is thrilling,” said Chair of NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island Community Advisory Board and Chairperson of Brooklyn Community Board 15 Theresa Scavo. “From the outset of this exploratory process, the hospital has given a voice to myself and other community leaders. I am proud of the hospital and excited for what will be a bright future ahead.”

“Since growing up in South Brooklyn, I have understood the value and lifeline Coney Island Hospital has provided to our surrounding communities,” said NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island CEO Svetlana Lipyanskaya. “Although located adjacent to the neighborhood of Coney Island, our medical center is the closest comprehensive facility for approximately 875,000 New Yorkers who reside in South Brooklyn and beyond. With today’s announcement, we are proud to acknowledge our closest neighbors and welcome through our doors the broader communities for whom we provide care and ultimately hope to serve.”

“Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a proud daughter of Brooklyn who rose to our nation’s highest court and tirelessly advocated for the rights of marginalized people across the country. We were so proud to advocate for the renaming of the Brooklyn Municipal Building in her honor earlier this year. The newly-renamed Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital will be a beacon for health equity in southern Brooklyn, a fitting tribute to a legal giant who dedicated her life to make our country fairer and more equitable for all,” said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.

“With accessibility to high-quality medical care a top priority as we work to better meet the health care needs of southern Brooklyn residents, it is only fitting that NYC Health + Hospitals rename this facility in honor of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a scholar, jurist and hometown icon who spent her celebrated career fighting for equality and justice for all,” said Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz.

“This hospital’s new name will remind the community how truly special this country really is. Justice Ginsburg grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, graduated first in her class at Columbia Law School when the legal profession was heavily dominated by men, and ascended to the highest court in the land. God bless America and we look forward to the continuation of the high-quality care provided by this hospital to the Brooklyn community,” said Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis.