nothin Hill Health Opens 3 New Wings | New Haven Independent

Hill Health Opens 3 New Wings

Jon Greenberg Photo

Michael Taylor and Dr. Meredith Williams cut the ribbon for the new pediatrics wing.

The Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center, which services just about 38,000 New Haveners a year, is about to be able to service a whole lot more.

Medical staff, city and state officials and friends of the center joined CEO Michael Taylor Wednesday morning at the center’s main campus on Columbus Avenue for the grand opening of three renovated wings, the new homes of the departments of women’s health, pediatrics, and optometry.

In front of a crowd of about 40 in the atrium of the new development, Taylor, city government Chief Administrative Officer Michael Carter, Hill Alder Dolores Colòn and Mark Silvestri and Meredith Williams, directors of pediatrics and women’s health at the center, spoke glowingly of the project before cutting ribbons at the entrance of each of the new wings.

The roughly $2 million project will increase the center’s patient capacity greatly. Taylor estimated that the expansions across the three departments could allow the center to service 10,000 to 20,000 more patients a year.

Silvestri said his department will make good use of the new space.

Mark Silvestri.

We were pretty much at capacity in the location where we were before,” Silvestri said. This expansion will allow us to service more women.”

Taylor said the new women’s health wing is closer to the front entrance of the center than the previous location, which will make it easier for pregnant women to walk to and from the department.

Williams said that her department waited a terribly long time” for a new space and that her department’s new home just makes me happy.” She said she is excited to be able to serve more patients and thanked those present for their efforts to turn the project into a reality.

Taylor said plans for the expansion have been in the works since he became CEO of the center five years ago. He added that the new wings were part of the hospital before, but that two housed other hospital operations and that the last had been vacant for about three years. Funding for the project came from a variety of sources, including grants, donations and contributions from the health center’s positive performance, according to Taylor.

The lobby of the new pediatrics wing.

After the ribbon-cutting, Taylor guided the Independent around the center’s shiny new optometry wing. The wing is complete with about five examination rooms and state-of-the-art medical equipment, much of which is brand new. Taylor called it one of the most, if not the most impressive eye care centers in the state.

Too few people realize what a gem we have here in the heart of New Haven,” Taylor said. We’re happy to show it off.”

Taylor added that Lions Low Vision, an organization that services low vision people across the world, has agreed to provide patients at the center who qualify as low vision with aid equipment free of charge.

A Lions representative who spoke Thursday said low vision is the degree of loss that cannot be corrected by eyeglasses, medicine or surgery. He said his organizations works with healthcare providers to get people with low vision equipment that allows them to live active lives. He added that Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center is the seventh health care provider in Connecticut with which the Lions have partnered.

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