A neighborhood power failure and equipment damage caused by the extreme rainfall on Friday necessitated a temporary evacuation and full patient transfer
At a little before midnight on September 30, 2023, NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull successfully completed a safe and orderly evacuation of all patients, to allow for the hospital to fully shut down its power to address flood-related damage. A total of 116 patients were transferred to other NYC Health + Hospitals sites. There were no adverse patient effects reported throughout the entire process. The health system has begun its assessment of the hospital’s engineering and electrical systems to understand the extent of any damage caused. It is estimated that the repairs could take a minimum of several days before the hospital can resume operations. NYC Health + Hospitals will continue to communicate with patients and their families to keep them updated as repairs continue.
“As we continue to work to support our fellow New Yorkers after Friday’s storm, I’m proud of the thousands of public servants across our administration for the work they’ve done to keep New Yorkers safe and get our city back up and running,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “That especially goes for the staff at Woodhull Hospital, which — in coordination with NYCEM and other city agencies — seamlessly transferred all of their patients to other hospitals to allow for electrical repairs to address damage caused by the storm. With climate change making these storms more intense and more frequent, it’s more important than ever that we get the federal resources we need to continue to build new infrastructure that can handle these threats. New Yorkers can rest easy knowing that our team is ready to address any crisis.”
“Once again, we showed how NYC Health + Hospitals works as a system to take care of all its patients,” said NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull CEO Gregory J. Calliste. “This could not have been accomplished without the work of the committed NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull staff, all the health system’s teams, and our government agency partners. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we’ll be a stronger hospital because of it.”
The hospital is not accepting any patients and will remain on diversion for all ambulances. In an emergency, New Yorkers should call 911 and ambulatory patients should seek out nearby hospitals.
NYC Health + Hospitals worked with NYCEM, FDNY, NYPD, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, its state partners, and state and federal regulatory and elected officials to facilitate the transfers.
