BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | It’s been five years since Northwell’s stand-alone emergency department opened in the wake of the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital in April 2010.
Now known as Lenox Health Greenwich Village, the E.D. is on Seventh Ave. between W. 12 and W. 13th Sts.
The Social Services Committee of Community Board 2 will hold a meeting on Mon., April 29, to discuss “how the community is engaging with” the free-standing E.D. — meaning without on-site hospital beds — the first of its kind in Manhattan and only the second in New York City.
The meeting, led by the committee’s chairperson, Susanna Aaron, will be at Little Red School House, 272 Sixth Ave., at Bleecker St. in the auditorium, starting at 6:30 p.m.
Participants will include representatives from Lenox Health Greenwich Village, the Fire Department — which runs the city’s E.M.S. ambulance service — and Say-Ah.org, a nonprofit specializing in teaching healthcare literacy.
“The hospital system seems to be undergoing so many changes,” Aaron said. “Maybe the stand-alone E.R. is a good, efficient model that meets our needs. Maybe people have had fantastic service. Or maybe people are unhappy with it. Maybe there are some kinks to be worked out for it to serve patients better. Maybe people have questions about costs, or when to choose the E.R. versus a primary-care doctor versus urgent care, or what gets set in motion when one calls 911.
“We hope to get a strong turnout, so that we can get useful feedback on how community members are engaging with their healthcare options and with this model of emergency care.”
While the community hoped to retain a full-service hospital, obviously, that didn’t happen.
“We are not going to bemoan the closing of St. Vincent’s,” Aaron said of the meeting’s agenda. “We’ve already covered that ground and the community expressed our desires and concerns clearly.”
