Page 40 - 2021 Queens Economic Development Guide

Northwell Health
Responding to the Needs of the Queens Community
Long Island Jewish Forest Hills looks back on a year of rising to the challenge of combatting and unprecedented public health threat.
Top: LIJ Forest Hills celebrates its American Association of Critical- Care Nurses Gold-Level Beacon Award. Opposite Right: Two of the Hospital’s ICU staff
Top Right: The hospital’s COVID-19 Command Center
January and February 2020
In early 2020, news about COVID-19 became increasingly frequent. Situated between two airports, Long Island Jewish Forest Hills (LIJ Forest Hills) was well versed in responding
to viral outbreaks such as SARS, Ebola and Zika.
March 2020:
An Unprecedented Threat
By March 7, the hospital had its first confirmed COVID patient. The next day, its state-of-the-art command center was activated to manage the unfolding situation.
The Hospital rose to Governor
Cuomo’s challenge to all hospitals to significantly increase bed capacities, tripling its ICU size and creating
five surge units by repurposing surgical and recovery suites and even converting a conference room into treatment space.
“LIJ Forest Hills, with the support
of Northwell Health, immediately responded to meet the significant needs of the Queens community, an initial epicenter of the pandemic in the United States,” says Susan Browning, executive director.
Resources such as ventilators and staff were leveraged across Northwell Health to aid in the response. That
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QUEENS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GUIDE
© Courtesy of Long Island Jewish Forest Hills