South Brooklyn Health

NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health is a public teaching hospital located in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It is owned by NYC Health + Hospitals, a public benefit corporation of the city. The hospital is home to FDNY-EMS Station 43, formerly NYC-EMS Station 31, and is a major clinical affiliate for clinical clerkship with the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine.

The hospital was previously named Coney Island Hospital. It received its current name in 2023 as part of a reconstruction of the hospital campus that included a replacement of the old main hospital tower with the new Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital building.

1875-2000
In 1875, Coney Island Hospital began as a first aid station on the oceanfront beach near West Third Street. It was called the Sea Breeze Hospital but officially known as Reception Hospital, an annex of the Kings County Hospital. It had 20 beds and facilities for emergency treatment. Patients requiring more were taken to Kings County Hospital, about seven miles away, in a horse-drawn ambulance. Construction of "the first part of the Hammett Pavillion, the yellow building facing Ocean Parkway," to build a 100-bed hospital, began in 1908, north of Coney Island Creek and east of Ocean Parkway.

With the help of Robert W. Hebberd, Coney Island Hospital was dedicated on May 18, 1910, then a six-building complex. The Hammett Pavilion was enlarged 1926 to 1928, resulting in 300 beds and five more floors. Population growth continued and so in 1954 the two white brick towers that make up the current hospital were opened.

2000-Present
In Spring 2006, Coney Island Hospital opened a new inpatient bed tower.

By 2011, the hospital became the biggest employer in southern Brooklyn. Hurricane Irene resulted in the hospital's first full-scale evacuation, since the buildings are located in Flood Zone A. Coney Island Hospital was severely damaged in 2012 due to Hurricane Sandy. As a result, the hospital proposes to spend $738 million on renovations, including constructing a new 11-story tower. The new tower is under construction and the completion date was scheduled to be June 2020, but due to COVID-19, the due date was postponed to 2022. The Ida G. Israel Community Health Center was renovated and reopened in 2015.

Starting in 2018, a ten-floor structure was built to replace the Hammett Pavilion, which will be demolished to create an open plaza and facilitate the construction of a flood-resistant barrier. Hospital officials announced in August 2021 that the new building would be named after the late U.S. Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Following the opening of the new building, the hospital was to be renamed to South Brooklyn Health. The Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital building opened on May 2, 2023, cost $923 million in total, and includes a statue of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the lobby.

Services
The hospital has been recognized for clinical innovations in Primary Care, Adolescent Medicine, Nuclear Medicine and Emergency Services. Interpreter services are available 24/7 in over 130 languages, though changing demographics has resulted in challenges for staff.

At 371 beds, Coney Island Hospital is the major medical service provider in southern Brooklyn with over 15,000 discharges and over 255,000 outpatient visits. The hospital's emergency department was renovated after Hurricane Sandy and now handles nearly 90,000 annual visits. As part of the upcoming renovation, Coney Island Hospital is planned to downsize to 351 beds, but with single-patient rooms in the new building.

Controversy
The 2016 day-after-admission death of a patient who was treated as if emotionally disturbed and shackled to her bed was investigated and found to be due to mistreatment, resulting in "three of the facility’s top officials" leaving their positions and several others reduced in rank or taking early retirement. At the time, there had been reports the "scores of people had been hired at Coney Island Hospital without proper authorization".