The Elizabeth A. Connelly Emergency and Trauma Center serves the fastest growing borough in New York City. The rapid growth of the Island’s population and recent increase in vehicular accidents has resulted in nearly 100,000 patients annually visiting Staten Island University Hospital for pediatric and adult emergency and urgent care. That equals one in five Islanders who each year turn to Staten Island University Hospital.
Staten Island University Hospital’s existing north campus Emergency Department opened its doors in 1979, when the Island’s population was 280,000. Since then, the Island’s population has increased by one-third, while two of the previously existing Island Emergency Rooms closed, leaving only three to serve 125,000 commuters and 500,000 residents.
Islanders requiring the highest level of emergency care turn to Staten Island University Hospital’s Elizabeth A. Connelly Emergency and Trauma Center, a Level I Trauma Center, located on the Hospital’s north campus. (The emergency centers on both north and south campuses are 911 receiving hospitals responsible for the evaluation, resuscitation and stabilization of patients of all ages who present with an acute illness or injury.)
This emergency facility is 39,945 square feet and features 56 patient treatment rooms, enabling Staten Island’s preeminent health care team to deliver trauma, behavioral, urgent, and emergent care to adult and pediatric patients in a modern spacious environment.
Directly above the emergency center is the Regina M. McGinn, M.D. Education Center. Specifically designed for teaching and learning, the education center serves as an axis for both hospital and community continuing medical education. The McGinn Center is a regional host for seminars and workshops, and the headquarters for a more spacious medical library for medical professionals, and new health literacy programs for the residents of Staten Island.
Elizabeth A. Connelly
Forever our Guardian Angel
Staten Island University Hospital’s new emergency and trauma center is dedicated on this day in lasting memory of a noble woman who touched the humanity in all of us during a long and distinguished career of service as a leader in the legislature and in health care.
Known as the guardian angel of the mentally disabled, she championed the causes of health, human rights, public safety and the environment from the state capital to the steps of Borough Hall.
With the lifelong support of her husband, Robert Connelly, Betty, a mother and grandmother, became an inspiration for her generation and beyond. In 1973, she became the first Staten Island woman elected to public office and the fi rst to be elected Chairman of Staten Island University Hospital’s Board of Directors, serving the hospital with distinction since her days as a volunteer and Auxilian from 1961 to 2006.