New York City opened its first new public hospital in more than 40 years Tuesday in Brooklyn, a nearly $1 billion project that, like its namesake, the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is built to withstand powerful storms.
Funded by $923 million in FEMA money, the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital on Ocean Parkway in Coney Island features an elevated, flood-resistant emergency room and a structure capable of weathering not just once-in-a-century systems like Sandy, but the once-in-every-500-years kind of storm, officials said, adding it "was built like a fortress."
The 11-story hospital is designed with storm resiliency in mind. It has private patient rooms and modern equipment to serve South Brooklyn and neighboring communities. And the lobby is flanked by a 7-foot-fall statue of Ginsburg, a Brooklyn native, to welcome visitors, staff and patients into what health officials hope will be a new era of care.
The center also has 60 psych beds, 80 medical beds and 8 operating rooms. There will also be some post-COVID amenities like rooms with blinds so doctors can observe patients from the hall, and pneumatic tubes to fast-track lab tests.
"The pandemic highlighted a lot of things, like health care. We cannot go back," said NYC Councilwoman Mercedes Narcisse.
Ginsburg's granddaughter, Clara Spera, was on hand for the ribbon cutting, saying she thought her grandmother would be "overwhelmed in the best possible way."
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The new hospital will open to patients on Sunday.
