Good news Downtown fans of emergency medical care! The trustees of the bankrupt St. Vincent's hospital, which closed last may, have announced that they will be opening a new 24-hour urgent and outpatient care center in the hospital's old O'Toole building (which some like to call the "overbite" building). The announcement was made earlier today by the Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers with landowner Rudin Management and North Shore-LIJ Health System.
North Shore-LIJ has pledged $110 million while the Rudin family is offering up another $10 million for the project, which will likely not open until at least the fall of 2013. First the O'Toole building needs to be reconfigured and a number of agencies are going to have to give their ok to the idea (like the Landmarks Preservation Commission). Somehow we suspect that the proposal to bring medical care back Downtown will prevail.
When it opens the six-story facility aims to serve about 72,000 people annually with a staff of 300. St. Vincent's is planning to make the center just short of a so-called "Level I Trauma Center," which in theory means it will be able to handle almost all emergencies.
When it comes the new center will fill a gaping hole left by St. Vincent's, one which the Urgent Care center opened in Chelsea last summer has not been able to fill.
