Coney Island Hospital
Local Director, Anthony Girardi, M.D.
Coney Island Hospital is a member of the City of New York's Health and Hospitals Corporation. The facility is the largest employer in South Brooklyn and is the major medical resource for the diverse populations that live and work there. The ophthalmology service offers comprehensive eye care as well as a full complement of subspecialty care, including both inpatient and outpatient services. Over the past several years, the clinic and operating room facilities have been upgraded and now include state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment equipment rivaling those at any major medical center. Physicians are now able to take advantage of improved fundus and anterior segment photography capability and Argon and YAG laser capability, as well as improved refractive and diagnostic examining lanes. Computerized laboratory and radiology retrieval systems are now in place, and plans for a completely computerized medical record system are being refined. Recent acquisitions for the operating room have included two new phacoemulsification units with both anterior and posterior capability as well as complete microsurgical instrument sets. The most advanced cataract and glaucoma procedures can now be performed on site.
The ophthalmology service at Coney Island Hospital has been under the direction of Dr. Girardi since 2004. Currently there are seven faculty members representing all of the major ophthalmologic subspecialties. Three SUNY-Downstate residents rotate through the service at any time, along with residents rotating from the Departments of Medicine and Family Practice. The population of patients seen at Coney Island Hospital is unique in that it consists almost entirely of recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union and the present Eastern European republics. These patients present with a variety of disorders including a high proportion of age-related macular degeneration, pseudoexfoliation glaucoma, cataracts and diabetic retinopathy.
While the demographics of the South Brooklyn area are changing, the ophthalmology service continues to enjoy high volumes both in the outpatient service and in surgical procedures performed. In 1998, almost 13,000 patients were treated by the ophthalmology staff and over 200 procedures were performed, an increase of 6 percent over the past two years.
