The Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, joined with officials of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth), medical center staff and government and community leaders for the Oct. 3 dedication of the new ambulatory care pavilion on the Valhalla campus.
The 8-story, 260,000-square-foot building represents a $230 million investment by WMCHealth. Its first and second floors opened for patient care in June, including the WMCHealth Heart & Vascular Institute and the Advanced Imaging facility.
Before the dedication ceremony, Dolan administered a “blessing of hands” for caregivers who are using their hands in providing patient care in the new building. Hospital staff members stood with their hands outstretched as the cardinal gave the blessing. “Blessed be your hands that will provide hope and strength to patients who are suffering,” he said. “Blessed be your hands that give peace to those in fear and pain. Blessed be your hands that nurture and care for the lonely and forgotten.”
Speaking at the dedication ceremony in the lobby of the new building, Michael D. Israel, president and CEO of WMCHealth, said, “This building grew to a height of 124 feet as a result of passion and dedication to excellence in patient care and patient and family experience to meeting the needs of our community; to more than just healing the sick but to counseling as well.”
Israel characterized the facility as “the new face of health care in the Hudson Valley.” He said it sets a new standard for patient-centered services in the region. “The ambulatory care pavilion is not just an investment in steel and glass, but a true investment by Westchester Medical Center in the physical and mental health of Hudson Valley residents, putting Westchester County and the entire Hudson Valley at the forefront of the health care industry,” he said.
Among the features of the building are 24 procedure rooms, 12 imaging rooms, 36 private pre- and post-procedure areas for patients, eight operating rooms, two cardiac catheterization laboratories and a specialized echocardiogram procedure room. WMCHealth”™s Advanced Physician Services and physician offices will be on the upper floors of the building.
Dolan said that he visits the medical center”™s campus regularly. “I do show up here a lot to visit people. I can sense it here that there”™s a precision of mission, that there”™s a cohesion of a lot of people with various specialties that are united just to bring wellness and healing to people.”
