White Plains Hospital unveiled a 20,300-square-foot Central Clinical Services facility on Monday, the end result of a $17.5 million renovation and addition across four floors at the main hospital building.
Susan Fox, president and CEO of the hospital, said at the ribbon cutting that the facility was “growing and thriving,” with patient volumes up 10 percent. The new three-floor care center helps address that growing volume, adding new areas for families of patients and staff.
“We have more patients coming to this hospital, which means we have more staff and we need additional space for the support that staff is providing,” Fox told the Business Journal. “So this building is both a commitment to renovating our hospital and making sure we”™re providing competitive state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, but also making sure we have the right amount of space.”
The new space was designed by international architecture firm Perkins Eastman. It adds a new waiting area for surgical procedures at the third level, with new family lounge areas with Wi-Fi and charging outlets on the two floors above.
The fifth floor also includes a new staff area with lounges, “quiet rooms,” a lactation room for working mothers, locker rooms and showers for staff.
“A happy staff means happy patients,” Fox said.
The sixth-floor addition includes a new parent area for maternity units and the neonatal intensive care facility.
To celebrate the new facility Monday, a group of more than 100 hospital administrators, staff and elected officials filled the new third-floor patient and family area so thoroughly that Fox joked it was hard to actually see the renovation work.
Ribbon cuttings have become somewhat routine at the hospital, as Fox noted that White Plains Hospital has built more than 200,000-square-feet of new and renovated space since 2015, including a 35,000-square-foot expansion of its cancer care facility last year.
It was in 2015 that White Plains Hospital officially joined the Montefiore Health System, which includes a network of more than 180 locations across the metro New York region. Dr. Steven Safyer, the CEO and president of Montefiore, said at the ribbon cutting that the health network and White Plains Hospital are “on a roll here.”
“I”™m extremely proud of what we”™re doing together,” Safyer said. “We’ve recognized from the beginning that White Plains Hospital is so important to this community.”
In introducing White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach, Safyer weighed in on the race for Westchester county executive that ended earlier this month with Democrat George Latimer defeating incumbent Republican Robert P. Astorino.
He told Roach, a Democrat who won re-election, “I”™m so happy you were re-elected.” He then added: “I”™m very happy that the county executive wasn”™t re-elected. That”™s not a secret.”
A Montefiore spokesperson contacted about Safyer”™s comments said they were “totally made in jest.”
In his remarks, Roach noted his personal connections to the hospital, which treated him for cancer and was the birthplace of his two children.
“This hospital has always had a culture within it of getting the best people” Roach said, adding that the White Plains Hospital was now “bringing the amenities at the facility up to the level of care.”
Though the new space was announced as the Central Clinical Services facility, Fox said at the ceremony that the hospital isn’t necessarily attached to that name.
“So yes, Central Clinical Services building makes probably little sense,” Fox said. “But I’ve decided that we can have a contest and you actually can be responsible for the future name of this building. So if anybody has a better one for us, please let us know.”
