Brooklyn Veterans Admistration Hospital
Harbor Health Care Systems, Brooklyn Campus
Local director, Edward Smith, M.D.
The Brooklyn Veterans Administration Hospital has been affiliated with SUNY Downstate since 1975. Following the Brooklyn VA and Manhattan VA hospital merger in January 1999, this institution continued its affiliation with SUNY Downstate under the new name of Department of Veteran Affairs New York Harbor Health Care Systems, Brooklyn Campus. The program was under the direction of Dr. Gombos from 1978 to 1999. Currently, three SUNY Downstate ophthalmology residents are among the 118 residents-in-training at the 1,000-bed VA facility. They work with patients under the supervision of seven faculty physicians —an equivalent of 2.6 full-time Ophthalmology Department faculty. Clinics in all six departmental subspecialties are offered. The patient population is made up primarily of geriatric veterans and some prisoners. The most common disorders encountered include cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and other retina problems. The facility averages 900 clinic visits monthly, and performs approximately 300 surgical procedured between July 2003 and June 2005.
Recent developments in services at the VA have included the opening of a new, combined ophthalmology/optometry outpatient department in September 1998, which is under the direction of Edward Smith, MD, associate chief of ophthalmology.
