New Emergency Department coming to GSR Medical Center

SUFFERN, N.Y. — The Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center broke ground for a new emergency department. The current department, designed almost 25 years ago, can only accommodate 19,500 patients. However, last year the department treated almost double that with 35,000 patients and will see a projected 52,000 patients in 2017.

The hospital is planning a multi-phase expansion that will triple the current space by January 2013.

The first phase will create 13 new bays, bringing the total to 32, and simultaneously install new imaging and diagnostic technology to provide testing.

“As technology improves and procedures become less invasive — and recovery time shortens dramatically — the need for state-of-the-art outpatient services is vital,” said Philip Patterson, CEO of Bon Secours Charity Health System (BSCHS).

BSCHS includes Bon Secours Community Hospital and St. Anthony Community Hospital in addition to the Good Samaritan Hospital. A partnership between the Sisters of Bon Secours and the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth of Convent Station created the health system. BSCHS serves 425,000 patients in Rockland, Orange and Sullivan counties with a workforce of 2,500 people and 800 physicians.

Good Samaritan Hospital, Suffern is a 370-bed not-for-profit hospital providing medical, surgical, emergency, acute care and obstetrical/ gynecological services to Rockland and southern Orange counties in New York and northern Bergen County, New Jersey. The hospital is an Area Level 2 Trauma Center and is the first and only cardiovascular program in the lower Hudson Valley area that includes cardiac catheterization, emergency angioplasty, open heart surgery, a laboratory and a pacemaker clinic.

The hospital also provides social, psychiatric and substance abuse services for the area as well as kidney dialysis services through its Frank and Fannie Weiss Renal Center.