48 THE QUEENS COURIER • HEALTH • NOVEMBER 1, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
health
De Blasio helps open Express Care Clinic at Elmhurst Hospital
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
adomenech@qns.com
@AODNewz
Th e sounds of camera shutters fl ickering
fi lled the air the morning of Oct.
25 as Mayor Bill de Blasio and Queens
Borough President Melinda Katz cut
a large red ribbon stretched across the
outside entrance to Elmhurst Hospital’s
new urgent care facility.
Despite the recent terrorism scare in
the city aft er 10 pipe bombs were delivered
by an unknown sender to left -leaning
public fi gures and CNN, de Blasio
continues his Queens tour of City Hall
in Your Borough.
“Th is is how we combat terrorism,”
said de Blasio. “By living our lives.”
Th e mayor added that nobody should
be paralyzed by the recent events, as fear
is what terrorists thrive on. De Blasio
stated that the NYPD investigation into
who sent the bombs is ongoing.
He then pivoted to the reason he
was in Elmhurst along with Borough
President Melinda Katz, President
and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/
Elmhurst Queens Israel Rocha, Jackson
Heights resident Susan Latham,
Head of the Express Clinic Dr. Philip
Fairweather and Chair of the New York
City Committee on Hospitals Carlina
Rivera.
Th e group outlined the reasons why an
urgent care facility adjacent to a hospital
was desperately needed.
According to the mayor, 70 percent of
emergency room visits are for injuries
that could be easily handled in an urgent
care facility.
Emergency room overcrowding is an
issue in every hospital in the New York
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Queens Borough President Melinda Katz cut the ribbon in front of Elmhurst Hospital’s newest addition: an Express Care Clinic.
City. Th e average wait time for patients
suffering from non-life-threatening
injuries is fi ve hours and many New
Yorkers fi nd themselves wasting time for
simple ailments or refusing to go at all.
“I have a 7- and a 10-year-old and
when one of them has an ear ache I’m
just like, listen, wait unit the morning,”
Katz said. She, too, fears sitting in a hard
plastic chair in a crowded ER waiting
room for hours.
Th e purpose of such facilities is to
provide quick care to patients suff ering
from mild injuries or illness in order to
decrease wait time in ERs.
Th e Express Care Clinic at Elmhurst
Hospital is one of three new urgent care
facilities in the city. Th e other two are at
Lincoln Hospital and Jacobi Hospital in
the Bronx. All three hospitals are apart of
the NYC Health+ Hospitals, the city’s public
hospital system. Mayor de Blasio plans
on eventually expanding express urgent
care service to all 11 inpatient offi ces.
Elmhurst Hospital’s Express Care
Clinic is open from 4:30 p.m. to 1 a.m.,
seven days a week. Th e clinic will have
four nurses, two to three attending physicians
and one or two physicians to
help. Each exam room is equipped with
a telephone linked to a translation line in
order accommodate non-native English
speakers.
Elmhurst set to get its fi rst CityMD Urgent Care in December
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
adomenech@qns.com
@AODNewz
Elmhurst will soon be getting its fi rst
CityMD Urgent Care at 91-19 Queens
Blvd., one of the most traffi cked intersections
in the borough. Th e facility will
be open and ready starting in December
of this year.
The Midwood Investment &
Development, which owns the property,
announced on Oct. 22 that the urgent
care provider will be leasing 2,350 square
feet on the ground fl oor and 2,250 square
feet in the cellar.
“CityMD is very excited to extend
its services to the Elmhurst/Rego Park
community. With 11 centers in Queens,
we strive to improve access to all New
Yorkers and will continue to expand into
key markets in the region,” said Dr.
Nedal Shami, chief growth offi cer for
CityMD.
Th e soon-to-be CityMD Urgent Care is
located across the street from the Queens
Center Mall —which receives more than
27 million visitors each year — and is
right above the Woodhaven Boulevard
Subway station which serves 20,000 passengers
every day on the M and R lines of
the subway. It was formerly a McDonald’s
and a Duane Reade pharmacy.
CityMD was founded in 2010 by a
group of emergency medicine physicians
and works to better provide quality medical
care in communities through convenient
location. Th e company has so far
treated over 7 million patients and has
more than 115 locations in the greater
New York Metro Area and Seattle,
Washington.
Besides off ering walk-in emergency
medical treatment, CityMD Urgent Care
facilities also off ers vaccinations, X-rays,
lab work, pediatric care and pregnancy
tests.
Th omas Caliendo, Daniel D. DePasquale
and Danielle Winick of Winick Realty
Group, LLC represented ownership in the
transaction at 91-19 Queens Blvd., while
Benjamin Birnbaum of Newmark Knight
Photo via shutterstock Frank represented the tenant.
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