Northwell Greenwich Village Hospital to open cath lab, inpatient unit; staff describe ED capacity and post‑Beth Israel impacts

Tracy Feiertag, vice president of Northwell Greenwich Village Hospital, told Manhattan Community Board 2 that the facility will add an inpatient unit and a cardiac catheterization (cath) lab and that those services are expected to open early this summer. Feiertag said the site was previously a freestanding emergency department and outpatient center operated under Lenox Hill Hospital’s Article 28 license; the added services and inpatient capability prompted the facility’s name change to Northwell Greenwich Village Hospital.

"We will be accepting heart attack patients and stroke patients as well," Feiertag said, describing the clinical scope once the new services are fully licensed and operational. She emphasized exclusions: the facility will remain on diversion for trauma and for critical behavioral‑health ambulance transports, meaning ambulances will generally not bring cases that require immediate trauma surgery or primary psychiatric hospitalization. Feiertag said the hospital will still evaluate and stabilize walk‑in behavioral‑health patients and will transfer when clinically appropriate.

Feiertag described recent operational changes affecting patient flow. She said a March Fire Department of New York (FDNY) policy change directs ambulances to the closest appropriate hospital to reduce turnaround time, which increased local arrivals. The hospital reported it had seen a roughly 15% volume increase attributable to the EMS policy change and additional increases after the April closure of Mount Sinai Beth Israel’s emergency department. Feiertag said daily arrivals rose by about 10 patients per day initially and then to roughly 30–35 additional patients per day after Beth Israel’s closure, an increase she characterized as about 25–30% overall. The hospital has added physicians, nurses and technicians to handle the surge.

Feiertag provided operational metrics for the emergency department: approximately 26 private rooms and 12 bay chairs, with additional use of hallway stretchers during higher census periods. Typical throughput benchmarks at the facility, she said, are about three hours from arrival to provider and roughly four and a half hours for patients who are ultimately admitted. Hospital leadership said those metrics have remained within their internal benchmarks so far because of added staffing and operational adjustments, but they are monitoring capacity and may request diversion if unsafe volumes occur; diversion requests are typically granted in four‑hour blocks by the city when clinically justified.

Board members asked about interfacility transfers and how ambulances and accepting hospitals are chosen. Feiertag said Northwell Greenwich Village has a streamlined transfer pathway to Lenox Hill Hospital (its operating hospital) and that, while the facility will help patients get to the hospital of their choice, transfers to other systems can take longer because the receiving hospital must accept and then arrange transport.

Why it matters: The facility’s expansion increases local access to cardiac and inpatient services downtown, but board members and residents raised concerns about systemwide capacity after Beth Israel’s closure and the FDNY policy change. Community members asked the board to monitor impacts at Bellevue, NYU and other hospitals and suggested the board revisit the issue with DOH and the hospital in several months. One board member proposed a follow‑up community health impact study to assess the standalone ED/micro‑hospital model over its first decade of operation.

Ending note: Hospital officials agreed to keep the board updated on operational indicators and transfers; the board said it will request additional data from the Department of Health and the hospital in follow‑up meetings.