The Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York is renovating and expanding its emergency department (ED) to support operational improvements and an improved patient experience.

The second, most prominent phase of three is now open to the public.

This independent, nonprofit, safety-net hospital is located on the border of Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene. It provides critical care to a patient population of which 80 percent are enrolled in Medicaid or Medicare.

Among other campus improvements, the Brooklyn Hospital Center’s ED needed upgrading. It was treating more than 70,000 patients annually in a space designed for 43,000.

The renovation, led by NK Architects’ New York office, emphasizes transparency and the removal of barriers between the community and healthcare.

This effort includes an expanded, more welcoming lobby and waiting room. The formerly dark interior space now opens to the neighborhood and offers abundant daylight through full-height windows.

Transparency and accessibility also extend to the clinical spaces. There, backlit, stretched-fabric “skylights” improve the interior environment for staff and patients.

Operational improvements include bedside registration to reduce wait times and split-flow planning with separate pathways for acute and less-acute patients. Also, a new observation unit streamlines transfers and frees up ED bays for new patients.

After breaking ground in 2019, phased construction kept the Brooklyn Hospital Center ED operational while the renovation was underway.

 

Project details

Facility name: The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Emergency Department Expansion and Renovation

Location: Brooklyn, N.Y.

Completion date: February 2022 (Phase 2)

Owner: The Brooklyn Hospital Center

Total building area: 24,000 sq. ft.

Total construction cost: $23.5 million

Cost/sq. ft.: $979/sq. ft.

Architecture firm: NK Architects

Interior design: NK Architects

General contractor: LF Driscoll Healthcare

Engineering: Lilker Associates Consulting Engineers PC (MEP), KPFF Consulting Engineers (structural/civil/site)

Builder: LF Driscoll Healthcare