Maimonides Medical Center will open a new emergency department within the old Victory Memorial Hospital site near the border of Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights.
The hospital, located at the intersection of 92nd Street and Seventh Avenue, was purchased by SUNY Downstate Medical Center in 2008, two years after its closure.
The site was renamed SUNY Downstate at Bay Ridge and was used for comprehensive ambulatory care only, which did not require overnight stays, after SUNY Downstate discontinued urgent and laboratory care at the location. SUNY Downstate later credited the purchase as partial cause for its poor financial situation in 2013.
City Councilmember Justin Brannan, who represents Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights, broke the news of the neighborhood’s new emergency department on Twitter Tuesday afternoon, only hours after he teased a “game-changer” for his district.
OK we're letting the cat outta the bag early because I hate being a tease… @MaimonidesMC will take over the old beloved Victory Memorial Hospital site on 92nd St & 7th Ave. This will soon be the site of Brooklyn’s newest standalone modern emergency dept. More details to come! https://t.co/XR2xzbxW0Q
— Justin Brannan (@JustinBrannan) June 15, 2021
It is unclear whether Maimonides bought the medical facility or if it will rent from SUNY Downstate, but Maimonides plans to host an official groundbreaking at the Dyker Heights hospital on June 25, according to a hospital rep, who declined to comment further.
The former Victory Memorial Hospital, which specialized in maternity care, had a history fraught with calamity. In 1999, two patients were killed in their hospital room by one of their sons, and in 1970, a truck holding liquid oxygen being delivered to the hospital exploded outside, killing the driver, a bystander and injuring 40.
The hospital also settled a lawsuit in 1992 after allegedly giving a patient receiving emergency ulcer surgery HIV-tainted blood in 1986 and the same doctor accused of the infectious blood transfusion faced criminal charges for allegedly killing two patients with his secretary at the same time of the settlement.
