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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | APRIL 3-APRIL 9, 2020 5
Hospitals
the hospitals were still getting
state loans of $6 million every
two weeks to stay alive.
“It was just too little
too late,” Marshall told the
TimesLedger at the time. “If
the economic times weren’t so
bad, I think they would have
been saved.”
More than 600 hospital
beds were lost a result of the
three hospitals’ closure, along
with vitally needed emergency
room services that would have
proven priceless during the
coronavirus pandemic.
The fi rst pandemic
St. John’s and Mary Immaculate
closed on the weekend of
Feb. 21, 2009, leaving Elmhurst
and other nearby hospitals to
pick up the slack.
But within weeks, before
Elmhurst Hospital could catch
up with the new demand, they
and the rest of Queens were hit
with a pandemic — a swine flu
outbreak.
The pandemic wound up
sickening hundreds of Queens
residents, primarily children;
nearly two dozen schools had
to be temporarily closed to help
curb the spike in cases.
The H1N1 flu outbreak
wasn’t nearly as widespread or
lethal then as coronavirus is
proving to be today, but it was
prevalent enough to send many
Queens residents to Elmhurst
Hospital seeking care.
“The ER is just inundated,”
said Dario Centorcelli, then an
Elmhurst Hospital spokesperson,
in a May 2009 TimesLedger
report. “A busy day for our Pediatric
ER Department used to
be 250 patients a day. Now we’re
seeing 350 on a regular basis.”
The TimesLedger report noted
that the hospital had treated
on May 18, 2009 “a record 407
children and more than 800 patients
in total.”
Growing numbers
The city, state and federal
governments worked together to
limit the spread and scope of the
swine flu outbreak. While the
crisis abated, the pressure on
Elmhurst Hospital’s emergency
department would continue to
increase in the decade to come.
City data revealed that visits
to the hospital’s ER grew by 38
percent between 2009 and 2014.
As a Level 1 trauma center, as
of 2018, it was receiving 1,200
trauma admissions per year.
Last year, a long-awaited
expansion of Elmhurst’s emergency
department finally got
off the ground. The project,
estimated to cost $43 million,
includes renovations as well as
the creation of a second story
for the department. Thirtythree
new patient rooms would
be created, including rooms for
bariatric, special pathogens
and critical care isolation.
But these improvements
will come long after the coronavirus
crisis ends. Construction
was scheduled to start
this spring, with completion
projected for 2023.
While the city and state
scramble to find ready-to-use
hospital bed space across the
region, they won’t find them
at the long-shuttered medical
centers in Queens.
St. John’s and Mary Immaculate
were redeveloped over
the past decade, transformed
primarily into new residential
units. The former St. John’s
Hospital changed hands several
times, and is now a mixedused
development featuring
apartments and retail/office
space.
Parkway Hospital, meanwhile,
remains abandoned.
Plans reported in 2018 to redevelop
the site into residential
housing have yet to come to
fruition.
A Google Maps photo taken
in 2018 shows the former entrance
awning in tatters and
windows boarded up. The Department
of Buildings database
reveals no new building
permits for the former medical
center; the most recent filing
occurred in 2009.
Along with Elmhurst Hospital,
nine other hospitals
currently serve Queens residents:
Mount Sinai Queens,
Astoria; Northwell’s Long
Island Jewish, Forest Hills;
Wyckoff Heights Medical
Center, Brooklyn; NewYork-
Presbyterian Queens, Flushing;
Jamaica Hospital Medical
Center; Flushing Hospital
Medical Center; NYC Health
+ Hospitals Queens, Jamaica;
St. John’s Episcopal Hospital,
Far Rockaway; and Northwell
Long Island Jewish Medical
Center, New Hyde Park.
Reach reporter Robert Pozarycki
by e-mail at rpozarycki@
qns.com or by phone at
(718) 260-4549.
Continued from Page 4
The former St. John’s Queens Hospital on Queens Boulevard in
Elmhurst is shown in this 2014 photo after it was redeveloped.
File photo/Liam La Guerre
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Bill de Blasio
Mayor
Oxiris Barbot, MD
Commissioner
PROTECT YOURSELF
AND OTHERS
• Keep at least 6 feet between
yourself and others.
• Wash your hands with soap
and water often.
• Cover your nose and mouth
with a tissue or sleeve when
sneezing or coughing.
• Do not touch your face with
unwashed hands.
• Monitor your health more
closely than usual for cold or
flu symptoms.
IF YOU ARE SICK
• Stay home.
• If you have a cough,
shortness of breath, fever,
sore throat and do not feel
better after 3-4 days,
consult with your doctor.
• If you need help getting
medical care, call 311.
• NYC will provide care
regardless of immigration
status or ability to pay.
REDUCE
OVERCROWDING
• Stay home.
• Telecommute if possible.
If you do go out:
• Stagger work hours away
from peak travel times.
• Walk or bike.
• Do not gather in crowds.
PROTECT THE
MOST VULNERABLE
• Stay home if you have
lung disease, heart disease,
diabetes, cancer or a
weakened immune system.
• Stay home and call, video
chat or text with family or
friends who have one of
these conditions.
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