Celebrating the Walsh Ambulatory Pavilion

By Dan Guarino and Katie McFadden

Episcopal Health Services’ (EHS) Walsh Ambulatory Pavilion is finally open and on Friday, May 1, hundreds of community members, healthcare staff, organizations and elected officials joined for a ribbon cutting to celebrate.

The Walsh Ambulatory Pavilion, a new 65,000-square-foot, five-story outpatient facility at 19-20 Brookhaven Ave., was named in honor of Gerard M. Walsh, former Chief Executive Officer and Board Member.  The building brings together primary care and a wide range of specialty services, including comprehensive cancer services and radiology, behavioral health, obstetrics and gynecology, endocrinology, and gastroenterology, as well as a new Endoscopy Center.

In the parking lot of the new Pavilion, EHS staff past and present joined elected officials like Assemblymembers Khaleel Anderson and Stacey Amato, Community Board 14 members, Queens Community Justice Center of the Rockaways, members of the 100th and 101st NYPD Precincts and more for the ribbon cutting.

Lisa Chase-Hernandez, EHS VP of Marketing, presided over the ceremony introducing each speaker. “We’re not just opening a pavilion. We’re opening access to available health care,” Chase-Hernandez said. The ceremony opened with prayers over the new building, staff and patients.

Bishop Lawrence Provenzano, President and Chairman of the EHS Board of Trustees, said the Pavilion was just one big part of the progress EHS continues to make. “This is not the end of this part of the journey, it is the mid-point,” he said. “It represents a vision of care for the community. It took a lot of dedication, a lot of hard work, a lot of prayer.”

EHS CEO Dr. Donald Morrish thanked all of those who helped make the project a reality. “For too long residents of the Rockaway peninsula have had to leave the peninsula for care. That day ends today,” Dr. Morrish said. He praised former CEO Gerard Walsh, who the building is named for and who was in attendance, for paving the way for such improvements and being a mentor.

“The main theme has always been access,” Walsh said. “There is nothing worse than at the worst time to be in a car, an ambulance, traveling further for care. “We have brought cancer care back to the Rockaways!”

To the current staff, Walsh said, “While my name is on the building, it is your expertise, your skills, your caring, that will bring it to life. May this building be a beacon of hope, health and dignity for all.”

Karen Paige, Executive Vice President, also gave praise to those who made the Pavilion possible. “Today marks a defining moment not only for our organization but for the future of care for the community which we are privileged to care for and serve. This is not the opening of a building, it is a realization of a vision,” Paige said. “High quality care should be local and seamless. We have delivered on that promise.”

Following the speeches, Walsh, Morrish, EHS officers, and others assembled at the front entrance of the new Pavilion for the ceremonial ribbon cutting. Attendees were then welcomed for a tour of the Pavilion, where they were greeted by the various department heads of the now state-of-the-art facilities located there, including the EHS Cancer Center.

To schedule an appointment at the Walsh Ambulatory Pavilion, call 718-EHS-DOCS (347-3627) or visit www.ehs.org/walsh.

Photos by Dan Guarino and EHS.