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By any measure, the Emergency Department (ED) at �����о��� Langone Hospital—Long Island exceeds the expectations of the nearly 85,000 patient visits it accommodates each year, playing a vital role in a health system renowned for its expertise in emergency medicine. On average, patients are seen by a medical provider within 5 minutes of their arrival (down from more than 15 minutes at the start of 2023), and the length of stay for patients who are treated and released has decreased by nearly 15 percent during the past two years. The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of healthcare organizations in the United States, has praised the ED for implementing innovative strategies to address overcrowding and space constraints.

Despite these achievements, a concerning trend was emerging. From 2021 to 2023, annual ED visits rose by more than 10 percent without an increase in dedicated space. “Patients are increasingly relying on emergency departments as the safety net of our healthcare system to receive medical care,” says Christopher G. Caspers, MD, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at �����о��� Grossman Long Island School of Medicine. “It became clear that we needed an expansion to continue to meet the needs of our community.”

�����о��� Langone Hospital—Long Island has met that need by opening a new ED pavilion. A freestanding annex connected to the existing ED, the 5,200-square-foot facility houses 24 new treatment bays, supplementing the 61 patient bays in the existing ED and increasing overall capacity by about 33 percent.

“The pavilion is intended to be an interim measure that will allow us to provide uninterrupted, high-quality care and meet critical patient demand as we work toward planning a more permanent facility in the future,” explains Joseph J. Greco, MD, executive vice president and chief of hospital operations, �����о��� Langone Hospital—Long Island. The new pavilion, which serves both adults and children, is intended to care for ED patients who are less acutely ill. Yet its state-of-the-art patient monitoring technology makes it suitable for treating any medical emergency, should a patient’s condition unexpectedly worsen.

“Space is important in the ED because it affords privacy for our patients,” says Dr. Caspers. “Space makes it possible to have sensitive conversations, build trust, get to know the patient beyond their clinical need, and understand the circumstances that led to their visit, as well as those they’ll face when they leave.” A grateful patient expressed their appreciation in a thank-you note to the ED team: “From the very beginning of my visit until the end, the doctor made me feel like I was in a private physician’s office instead of an emergency room filled with other people.”

Amid the frenetic pace and uncertainty of an emergency environment, there’s a relentless need to innovate. The ED’s team—including 65 physicians, 157 nurses, 25 nurse practitioners and physician assistants, 62 nursing assistants, and 36 staff—has risen to the challenge. Despite space limitations, patient satisfaction scores are the highest they have ever been, and they continue to rise. In the winter of 2023, clinicians implemented a practice of triaging and evaluating patients from the moment they entered the ED. “We don’t wait for a bed to become available before we engage patients,” says Dr. Caspers. “Instead, we walk out to our waiting area and bring care to the patients where they are.”

A large share of the ED’s success, Dr. Caspers notes, is attributable to the collaboration and leadership of its nursing staff. “Emergency care is a team-based effort, and our patient care is defined by the partnership between our nurses and providers, who work side by side,” he says. Heidi Pierluissi, MSOL, BSN, senior director of nursing for the ED, says nurses play a critical role throughout all stages of patient care. “As the first clinical staff members patients often encounter,” she says, “they play an integral role, ensuring that patients’ needs are met while supporting a positive experience.”

A hospital’s emergency department might be the last place you’d expect to find neighborliness, but Dr. Caspers sees it as a natural setting for members of the community in need of comfort and care. “I’m a native Long Islander, and �����о��� Langone Hospital—Long Island is an important part of my community,” he says. “Our hospital is a community within our community, and that familiarity, reliability, and trust keep us patient centered. There’s nothing like knowing that the hospital you grew up with is the same hospital—and even better—as we continue to grow.”