By Healthcare Facilities Today

Coney Island Hospital is seeking Federal Emergency Management Agency approval for a plan to rebuild its emergency room on a raised platform. The additional height will protect the facility from floods up to the government's new 500-year standard, which was elevated in the wake of the storm, according to an article on the Modern Healthcare website

Anticipating harsher storms from climate change, many New York City hospitals rebuilding in the wake of superstorm Sandy are exceeding the state's proposed 500-year flood standards, the article said.

“The flooding occurred by those (creeks) overrunning their banks. It's never happened before,” said Alan Aviles, president and CEO of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., which had to evacuate more than 900 patients from three hospitals because of the storm. “We have to appreciate that it could happen again.”

The $1 billion in recovery efforts for Aviles' health system, which owns Coney Island Hospital, have shifted away from the early scramble to restore operations at the clinics, operating rooms and laboratories, according to the article. Now, officials say, the focus is on preparing hospitals for what many are afraid could become routine — climate change-driven superstorms.

Hospitals are taking their lead from new state recommendations that redefined the 500-year flood standard for new construction. New York City recommended that existing hospitals in vulnerable zones meet 500-year standards by 2030. A state health committee on construction standards called that elongated timeline “reasonable.” A state analysis found 1 out of 3 hospital beds in the state is located in a flood zone.

In the article, Susan Waltman, executive vice president and general counsel for the Greater New York Hospital Association, said that hospitals are moving to meet the standards even though the regulations are not final.

Read the article.