As one Cobble Hill medical center faces closure, another is set to open.
PM Pediatrics — so named because it’s an after-hours kids health clinic — announced it will set up shop on Atlantic Avenue near Brooklyn Bridge Park this summer, even as nearby Long Island College Hospital is on its deathbed.
Children’s clinic founder Dr. Jeffrey Schor said his goal is to keep young patients out of emergency rooms — unless there’s a real emergency.
“I doubt that anyone would argue that an emergency department is the best place for a child,” said Schor, who founded PM Pediatrics in part because of his experience as an emergency department doctor.
“Probably 90 percent of the kids we saw in there were not real emergencies, even though the parents thought they were,” he said. “Emergency rooms have tremendous issues with crowding — you’re often overwhelmed by the number of patients who do not have emergencies but need care.”
The new office will provide walk-in urgent care for newborns to kids as old as 22, operating weekdays from 5 pm to midnight and weekends and holidays from noon to midnight.
Doctors will have “the medical know-how, the experience, and the equipment” to treat children’s medical issues large and small, Schor said.
But for life-threatening emergencies, doctors will occasionally direct patients to nearby facilities — which may be more difficult if state authorities do what many neighbors fear they will, and opt to shutter Long Island College Hospital.
“I’ve only heard good things about LICH,” Schor said. “We certainly want to establish a good relationship with them as we have with all our other area hospitals.”
Reach reporter Jaime Lutz at jlutz@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-8310. Follow her on Twitter @jaime_lutz.
