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NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center celebrated the opening of the Barbara Walters Acute Care Treatment Center on October 1. Supported by a $10 million gift from broadcast journalist and television personality Barbara Walters, the Barbara Walters Acute Care Center will provide access to specialized treatment for critically ill patients in Washington Heights-Inwood and across the New York metro region. The center is a cornerstone of the new Morgan Stanley Adult Emergency Department, located at 168th Street and Broadway in Manhattan.

The Barbara Walters Acute Treatment Care Center is designed to deliver high-quality emergency care in a setting that will help ensure privacy. The facility features 15 individual patient rooms and state-of-the-art medical equipment, allowing physicians to provide rapid diagnosis and treatment for patients with acute conditions such as heart attacks and strokes. Physicians will be able to quickly address the needs of critically ill patients, while reducing waiting times for patients without life-threatening conditions. In addition, the center’s design features bays that are spacious enough to accommodate patients' family members.

"It's important to me that patients and their families have access to the best care possible when they need it most," said Ms. Walters. "I'm grateful to have received such outstanding care from NewYork-Presbyterian, and I'm proud that this center will help them save countless lives."

"The opening of the Barbara Walters Acute Care Treatment Center represents the beginning of a new era in emergency care at NewYork-Presbyterian," said Dr. Steven J. Corwin, CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. "The center will increase our ability to provide high-quality, patient-centered emergency care not only to our patients in Washington Heights and Inwood, but across the city and throughout the New York metro region."

The Barbara Walters Acute Care Treatment Center is a key development for the Morgan Stanley Adult Emergency Department, an ongoing renovation project initiated in response to the growing demand for emergency services that is set to be completed in stages over the next three years. NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia will continue to provide necessary emergency services throughout the renovation. Once the project is finished, the Morgan Stanley Adult Emergency Department will comprise 45,000 square feet, double its current size, and will be equipped with 88 treatment bays. Last year, the emergency department treated more than 87,000 patients.

"The center will provide us with the space and technology to more rapidly diagnose and treat our patients who are most in need, which in many cases means saving lives," said Dr. Joseph Underwood, interim chief of Emergency Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, and assistant clinical professor of medicine, Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. "NewYork-Presbyterian and its patients will benefit from Ms. Walters’ remarkable generosity for years to come."

NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center

NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, located in New York City, is one of the leading academic medical centers in the world, comprising the teaching hospital NewYork-Presbyterian and its academic partner, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia provides state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory and preventive care in all areas of medicine, and is committed to excellence in patient care, research, education and community service. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital also comprises NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division, NewYork-Presbyterian/The Allen Hospital and NewYork-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital. The hospital is also closely affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian/Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville. NewYork-Presbyterian is the #1 hospital in the New York metropolitan area, according to U.S. News & World Report, and consistently named to the magazine’s Honor Roll of best hospitals in the nation.