St. John’s Episcopal Hospital using $10M grant to expand ER

St. John’s Episcopal Hospital is using a $10 million state grant to expand its emergency room for the first time since the 1950s, an executive at the Far Rockaway, Queens-based hospital said on Friday.

The independent hospital, which serves southern Queens and southwestern Nassau County, expects to double the size of its emergency room to 22,000 square feet in the next year, said Renee Hastick-Motes, vice president of external affairs at St. John’s.

“Based on our size, we should be seeing about 12,000 to 15,000 patients per year in our emergency room,” Hastick-Motes said. “We are currently seeing about 45,000 patients per year, so you can see why we need to do this.”

She said the new emergency room will include a separate area for psychiatric patients.

“Right now, everyone is in the same area, and that is not conducive to meeting the needs of the population,” Hastick-Motes said.

The grant was approved through the state’s Capital Restructuring Financing Program last year.

“We have a responsibility to continue to make critical capital and infrastructure improvements that transform our health care system,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a release in March 2016, when the grants were awarded.

St. John’s has about 1,400 full-time and part-time employees combined. Hastick-Motes said the hospital’s long-term plans include adding staff, which is not covered by the grant.