Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth) in Valhalla hosted a groundbreaking ceremony marking the start of construction for a Critical Care Tower, a five-story building that will have 162,000 square feet of space that includes 128 private patient rooms. Services planned for the facility include advanced cardiac, neuroscience, oncology, and surgical specialty care. Completion is expetced in 2026.
Numerous state and local government officials and WMCHealth personnel attended the event, including State Senators Shelley Mayer and Pete Harckham and Assembly members Gary Pretlow, Nader Sayegh, Maryjane Shimsky, and Dana Levenberg. The speakers at the event included Westchester County Executive George Latimer, New York State Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, WMCHealth President and CEO Michael Israel, and State Assembly Health Committee Chair Amy Paulin.
Westchester Medical Center serves as the Hudson Valley region’s Level I trauma center. Upon the tower’s completion, all trauma intensive care services will be relocated there.
“Advanced care is Westchester Medical Center’s bedrock service,” Israel said. “This project is not just about bricks and mortar; it’s about our unwavering commitment to the health and well-being of our community. The Critical Care Tower will stand as a testament to our continued leadership, providing ultramodern facilities for critical care that will impact lives for years to come.”
Westchester County Executive George Latimer said, “We all saw what happened in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, and realized that having the ability to surge in capacity at a moment’s notice was critical.”
Shimsky said that the new facility will “significantly expand the Hudson Valley’s capacity for pandemic readiness, equity in maternal and infant care, trauma care, organ transplants, and other high-level medical services.”
Delgado characterized the groundbreaking for the new center as being “a significant step in expanding lifesaving care for Hudson Valley residents who are too often forced to travel far from home to receive treatment.”
Paulin praised the move toward single-patient rooms as being important for reducing infection risk, increasing patient satisfaction, and providing privacy.
“This is, after all, about so much more than convenience and personal preference,” Paulin said. “For patients, it’s about dignity and respect at a low point in their lives. It’s about families and their ability to be present in a comfortable setting. At this new tower, wounds will be healed, medical knowledge will be advanced, and lives will be rebuilt.”
The tower is expected to bring Westchester County over $3.5 million in economic benefits and create over 770 construction jobs and 127 full-time jobs. The $220 million project is being largely funded by the Westchester County Local Development Corporation, which issued $195 million in tax-exempt bond financing to support it.
Peter Katz contributed to this story.
