“…when finished, Harlem Hospital will among the most technologically advanced hospitals - public or private - in the City," - Mayor Bloomberg

Excerpt from the Press release:

A major modernization and expansion of Harlem Hospital Center was announced on April 20th 2004. The five-year, $225.5 million modernization and expansion will enable Harlem Hospital to improve its physical and therapeutic environment and offer more state-of-the-art services to Harlem and its surrounding neighborhoods. 

Harlem Hospital is currently comprised of seven buildings over two blocks.  The upgrade will expand the hospital by 20,000 square feet; 150,000 square feet of new space will be built and 183,000 square feet of existing space will be renovated.   In the course of the renovation, three antiquated and obsolete buildings will be demolished. 

A new Patient Pavilion will be built on Lenox Avenue from 136th to 137th streets, and will house the hospital's new Emergency Department which will have separate walk-in and ambulance entrances, state-of-the-art critical care and diagnostic units and new fully equipped operating rooms.  The construction of the new Patient Pavilion will connect the Martin Luther King Pavilion and the Ron L. Brown Pavilion, creating one large building complex for Harlem Hospital.

The modernization and expansion plan will also improve the Medical Surgical and Inpatient Unit in the existing Martin Luther King Pavilion. The hospital will be converting four-bed rooms into two-bed and single-bed rooms, with bathroom facilities in each room.  In addition, it will connect the outpatient clinics with such services as radiology and laboratory and bring maternal and newborn services onto one floor.

To continue to provide a nurturing, therapeutic environment, Harlem Hospital plans to preserve its existing murals for incorporation in the new facility.  The hospital is home to many extraordinary works of art by African-American artists and the modernization will include a plan to preserve and move the art into new locations where it can be more visible to the public.  During the 1930s the Works Program Administration sponsored the creation of several murals throughout the building including works by Charles Alston. Sculptor John Rhoden created the now famous sculpture that adorns the front of Harlem Hospital.  Harlem continues to support modern artists who create works of art throughout the hospital.

Harlem Hospital is home to a nationally recognized Asthma Center, one of only six such clinical research centers in the country; and the award-winning model Tuberculosis Clinic, one of only three in the U.S.  Since 1992, the clinic has helped reduce active tuberculosis cases in Harlem by 75%.  The AIDS initiative program at Harlem Hospital provides screening for all HIV patients and for those at highest risk for the disease. It also coordinates treatment; offers psychological and social services; and provides inpatient, emergency, post-discharge and alternate care, such as hospice or long-term home health care. 

More Information can be found here