For more than 50 years, Maimonides Children’s Hospital has served Brooklyn’s children and families with unparalleled emergency care, as the borough’s sole children’s hospital and only pediatric trauma center.  

This fall, our newly renovated and expanded Children’s Emergency Department (ED) will open on 48th Street and 10th Avenue. This will be the only standalone children’s ED in the borough and will be located in a modernized space with brand-new equipment to ensure all children in our community receive the best care possible for any emergency condition. From fevers and injuries to allergic reactions and asthma, our team is here to provide the best lifesaving care in a revitalized setting—24 hours a day, 7 days a week—for our borough’s more than 600,000 children.  

Expanded Space for the Most Effective Care 

The new Children’s ED will quadruple the current pediatric emergency space, expanding to an impressive 18,650 square feet, with 32 treatment rooms.  

“The updated ED supports our team in setting a new standard for pediatric emergency care here in Brooklyn,” says Alex Arroyo, MD, Chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Maimonides. “Building this new facility has allowed us to intentionally redesign the emergency care experience to meet the unique needs of our children and adolescent patients, with quality of care, patient experience, and efficient team workflows in mind.” 

Enhanced Treatment Capabilities 

The new ED features state-of-the-art therapies and diagnostic imaging with multiple modalities, all available on-site for rapid diagnosis and treatment of emergency conditions. These include: 

• Resuscitation rooms: Equipped with the latest technology, these rooms will provide a setting for immediate care for critically ill or injured children, ensuring that they receive the best possible treatment right away, with the latest lifesaving equipment. 

• Triage rooms: Designed for quick assessment and prioritization of patients, these rooms will help streamline the modified triage process, allowing for faster treatment. 

• X-ray room: The inclusion of a dedicated X-ray room will facilitate immediate imaging services, reducing the need for patients to be transported to other areas of the hospital for diagnostic imaging. 

• Ultrasound and CT: Our team has extensive expertise in emergency ultrasound and CT imaging to diagnose a range of conditions, including traumatic injuries and respiratory abnormalities. Utilizing point-of-care ultrasound, Maimonides ED physicians gain real-time information easily, at any time of day, without need for patient transport around the hospital.   

• Dedicated trauma rooms: As Brooklyn’s only pediatric trauma center designated by the New York State Department of Health, we’ve met selective standards of care established by the American College of Surgeons’ Committee on Trauma. Our expert pediatric critical care physicians and surgeons are highly experienced in treating children and adolescents for a wide range of traumatic injuries.  

Creating a Patient-Centered Experience 

The larger facility will accommodate more patients and provide a more comfortable environment for families during what can be among the most stressful times of their lives. Achieving focused care and faster throughput is a major priority as the pediatric emergency care teams transition to the new space. To enhance care provision and reduce wait times alongside the increase in patient capacity, ED leaders are implementing pre-arrival registration, allowing families or referring providers to complete necessary paperwork before arriving. The design of the department includes a dedicated walk-in entrance and street-level drop-off area, along with a separate ambulance entrance and intake area to streamline access for both families and emergency medical services. 

The ED will function around a dual-track flow, which splits patient volumes into a low-acuity zone and a high-acuity zone.In the low-acuity zone, patients will be rapidly assessed using a clinical team approach, with orders implemented immediately. This workflow prioritizes patient safety and comfort while utilizing the appropriate physical space for their condition, ultimately enhancing the overall experience for families during their time in the Children’s ED. 

“Our emergency medicine programs, both adult and pediatric, are among the busiest in the city and the state,” says Eitan Dickman, MD, Chair of Emergency Medicine at Maimonides. “Serving this many patients is not without challenges, but this redesign marks a significant advancement in the level of care we are able to offer to our communities. This will more than double our ED space across the adult and pediatric divisions, and along with our recent psychiatric emergency department renovations, these updates are key to ensuring our patients have the adequate emergency care facilities that our growing population needs and deserves.” 

Maimonides also provides several outcome-focused services to children and families during and after hospitalization. To ensure individualized attention, our full-time Pediatric Hospitalist Program is led by board-certified pediatricians who coordinate care programs based on each child and their unique needs. Additionally, our Child Life, Creative Arts, and Education Program specialists support the emotional, social, and developmental needs of children experiencing stress due to hospitalization and medical procedures. The medical center has received a grant to outfit a special sensory room in the new Children’s ED, which will help make visits more comfortable and reduce stress for children who may benefitfrom increased or reduced stimuli. 

Our providers are also well-versed in caring for Brooklyn families across the many rich cultures represented in the borough, offering language assistance services, religious services, and diverse meal options. ED physicians, staff, and volunteers speak many languages widely spoken in southern Brooklyn, including English, Spanish, Russian, Yiddish, Arabic, Chinese, and more. 

Simplified, Coordinated Care Across Specialties

Our team of board-certified pediatric emergency medicine physicians, surgeons, nurses, and support staff are specially trained to handle the unique challenges of pediatric emergencies. Patients also benefit from the collective expertise of Brooklyn’s only children’s hospital, home to a wide range of specialists across more than 30 subspecialties. Maimonides Children’s Hospital includes Brooklyn’s largest pediatric and neonatal intensive care units, the borough’s only cancer center that is part of the national Children’s Oncology Group, and our pediatric cardiology program that is accredited by the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission in fetal and pediatric echocardiography.  

“The spectrum of inpatient and outpatient services we offer at Maimonides Children’s Hospital is unmatched in Brooklyn,” says Jeffrey Avner, MD, Chair of Pediatrics at Maimonides. “When patients require more than just acute care, whether it be inpatient admission or outpatient follow-up care, our pediatric teams work together to simplify the care process and deliver the best outcomes, close to home.” 

Partnering with Primary Care Providers 

Collaboration with patients’ regular doctors is also a key part of the Children’s Hospital and the Children’s ED. We recognize the importance of coordinated care and communication, especially when ongoing specialized treatment is needed.  

“We know that emergency care is one link in a child’s overall health, and it is most effective when patients have the counsel and follow-up care of a family doctor or trusted specialist who knows them well,” says Dr. Avner. “We look forward to working closely with our partners in care across the community to ensure that every child receives the care they need to flourish in the long term.” 

Our team of pediatric specialists encourages referring providers to reach out with any questions or concerns regardingpatient care. 

Equipped with the latest diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, expanded space, and providers who are committed to serving children with the highest quality of care, Maimonides is poised to become an even more essential link in the chain of pediatric medical care available in Brooklyn. We look forward to welcoming patients and families this fall.  

Learn more at maimo.org/peds-ed or call 718-283-7500.