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March 8-14, 2019 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
THE NEWSPAPER OF FLUSHING, AUBURNDALE, KEW GARDENS HILLS & FRESH MEADOWS
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St. Mary’s expansion now complete
Bayside facility’s new respiratory care center will help aid ‘more children than ever’
IRISH PRIDE IN QUEENS
State Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez march in the St. Pats for All Parade.
See photos on Page 14. Photo by Bruce Adler
Vol. 28 No. 10 52 total pages
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
St. Mary’s Healthcare
System for Children held
a ribbon-cutting ceremony
to celebrate the completion
of its new Center for
Pediatric Respiratory
care, a 22,300-square-foot
expansion of the hospital’s
pediatric facilities.
St. Mary’s President and
CEO Dr. Edwin Simpser was
joined by Cindy Johnson,
Norman Feinberg, Attilio
and Beverly Petrocelli, and
the Kids for Kids Foundation,
whose generosity was
instrumental in the
completion of the project at
the hospital, located at 29-01
216th St. in Bayside.
“Today marks a historic
moment in the history of
our hospital,” Simpser said
at the March 4 ceremony.
“Expanding the number
of ventilator-equipped
beds will allow us to care
for more children than
ever, helping us fulfill our
mission of serving New
York’s most critically ill
and injured children. We’re
so deeply grateful to the
Johnson family, Norman
Feinberg, the Petrocelli
family and the Kids for Kids
Foundation for their work
making this extraordinary
project into a reality.”
The capital project
transformed 22,300 square
feet of administrative
space into a state-of-the-art
facility. The 27 ventilatorequipped
beds will be
in multiple two-bedded
patient rooms, which
provide comfortable space
for children’s accessibility,
equipment needs, family
visits and privacy.
According to the Medicaid
Redesign Workgroup on
Medically Fragile Children,
nearly 100 of New York’s
children who require
ventilator-equipped beds
are forced to seek care out of
state due to high demand. St.
Mary’s — the only pediatric
post-acute care facility in
New York City — was already
operating at 100 percent
capacity. The expansion will
allow the hospital to meet the
growing need for pediatric
respiratory care.
The renovation has
included a new Great
Room, a communal space
for recreation, education,
visitation and dining.
The transformation will
provide home-like amenities
that put patients into a
total-healing environment.
“In times of struggle,
the proper support and
facilities are crucial to
help sick children and their
families. That’s why we
were so thrilled to support
the new expansion at St.
Mary’s Healthcare System
for Children,” said Robert
Catalano, founder and
board chair of the Kids for
Kids Foundation. “We look
forward to continuing our
work with St. Mary’s to
provide care and support for
any child who needs it.”
/QNS.COM