Progress Report
LHGV: A growing health hub at 5 years
BY ALEX HELLINGER
On July 17 Lenox Health Greenwich
Village (LHGV) turned
fi ve years old. We fi rst opened
our doors to anyone and everyone needing
emergency care in 2014 with our fullservice
Emergency Center as a fi rst step
in fi lling the gap of healthcare services
needed in this neighborhood and to ease
the hardships our community endured
after St. Vincent’s Hospital closed.
Our desire was to create something
very special for patients in need of help
at a critical time in their lives. Our Emergency
Department is open 24/7/365 and
cares for all patients regardless of their
ability to pay. We had more than 38,000
patients visit our emergency department
in 2018 alone.
We’ve administered clot-busting
medications to patients with strokes,
and we’ve provided critical care to many
thousands of patients with heart failure,
COPD, aneurysms, respiratory failure,
pneumonia, infl uenza, diabetes, allergic
reactions and more. We also regularly
care for psychiatric patients, as well as
patients with drug- or alcohol-related
emergencies.
The opening of the Emergency Center
was just the beginning of our more than
$180-million investment for the residents
of this community; we are building
a true comprehensive medical network
throughout Downtown Manhattan.
In 2016 we opened our state-of-theart
Imaging Center. We realize that being
referred for an imaging study can be
a stressful experience that can be compounded
by the inconvenience of having
to travel to out-of-the-way facilities.
Our Imaging Center offers the most advanced
breast cancer screening exams,
including 3D mammography, a new imaging
option that diminishes the rate of
false positives by about 40 percent. We
are one of only a handful of centers that
offer this new imagining option. In addition
to our full range of breast-imaging
services, our 13,000-square-foot center
also offers magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI), CT scans, ultrasounds, digital Xrays
and bone density testing.
Also within LHGV, we have opened a
patient service center (blood collection),
an ambulatory surgery center and a conference
room space that is open for community
use. Additionally, we have added
orthopedic and spine care physician offi
ces and recently hired a plastic surgeon
that specializes in transgender care.
With our commitment to continue
building a comprehensive and robust
medical ecosystem Downtown, in 2018
we opened Northwell Health Physician
Partners at Greenwich Village, located
at 7 Seventh Ave. — Northwell’s largest
primary multispecialty center in Manhattan
— and our 78th outpatient practice
over all in the borough. Here you’ll fi nd
expertise in adult cardiology, rheumatology,
pulmonology, gastroenterology, otolaryngology
and surgical specialties, plus
pediatric neurology, allergy and cardiology.
In addition, surgical consultative services
available include thoracic, bariatric,
vascular, colorectal, plastic, urologic
and general surgery. The clinical space
features 28 exam rooms, a noninvasive
cardiology testing suite, chest radiography,
a full audiology testing booth and a
pulmonary function laboratory. This follows
the opening of three large primary
care and multispecialty practices in the
area.
In order to further provide access to
medical care for non-emergencies, we
also opened two GoHealth Urgent Care
Centers, located at 225 W. 23rd St. and
41 E. Eighth St.
With our strong commitment to the
environment, the LHGV building, at 30
Seventh Ave., between 12th and 13th
Sts., was awarded a Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design (LEED)
certifi cation by the U.S. Green Building
Council. LEED-certifi ed buildings save
money and resources while promoting
renewable, clean energy. We believe in
and support this community. We have
partnerships with the New York Alliance
Against Sexual Assault, the L.G.B.T.
Center and the New York AIDS Memorial.
We are recognized as a “Leader in
L.G.B.T. Healthcare Equality” by the
Human Rights Campaign Foundation,
designated as an AIDS Center by the
New York State Department of Health,
and we are a certifi ed Sexual Assault Forensic
Examiner (SAFE) Center.
We are part of the fabric of this community
and want our residents to have access
to high-quality care right where they
live. We administer free fl u shots, offer
CPR classes and routinely perform health
screenings at community health fairs.
Hellinger is executive director, Lenox
Health Greenwich Village.
Statue of Liberty Museum Connects Us
The Statue of Liberty has
stood in New York Harbor
since 1886, three years after
the Brooklyn Bridge opened
and decades before skyscrapers
proliferated across
Manhattan. Since then the
statue has represented a
host of causes and issues,
and gone under a series of
physical alterations. The
new Statue of Liberty Museum
on Liberty Island captures
this history through
immersive theater, engaging
exhibits, and an opportunity
to get up close to the
statue’s original torch.
Upon entering the museum,
visitors are transported
from 1860s France to
present-day New York City
during a 10-minute video
about the statue and its history.
One section of the museum
reveals how French
politician Édouard René de
Laboulaye was so moved
by post-Civil War abolition
that he conceived the idea
With Our Past and Present
of a statue to celebrate that
achievement. Other sections
of the museum focus
on the irony of a monument
to that captured the imagination
of immigrants while
the country it represented
failed to give many full
freedom and liberty.
The museum also houses
the original torch. The
torch was modified a handful
of times over its first
three decades to maximize
the light emitted as Lady
Liberty was pulling double
duty as a lighthouse. The
design failed to consider
how natural elements could
infiltrate the statue, creating
structural problems
which spurred a multi-year
renovation in the 1980s and
a replacement of the original
torch, which features a
sculpted flame.
For millions of us
across the country, our
family’s American story
begins with a relative’s arrival
in New York Harbor
where they were greeted
by Lady Liberty. They
must have been glued to
the ship’s statue side to
catch a glimpse of Lady
Liberty. They must have
felt a rollercoaster of emotions
— excitement for
having made it, uncertainty
at what the future
held, and a homesickness
for those they left behind.
The power of the new museum
is in its ability to
connect us to the dramas
of that past.
Schneps Media DEX August 8 - August 21, 2019 17