Reimagining Emergency Care at Downstate
By Office of the President | Jun 2, 2026
The Emergency Department (ED) supports Downstate’s core missions of patient care, education, research, and service to the community. As University Hospital at Downstate (UHD) prepares for a major transformation, the ED will become even more central to Downstate’s future.
The State’s $1.1 billion investment in Downstate includes plans for a redesigned emergency department to improve patient flow, enhance capacity, and strengthen access to care for the communities UHD serves. The modernization will include additional treatment bays, expanded ambulatory services, and advanced outpatient cardiology suites for follow-up care post- emergency treatment.
For many Central Brooklyn residents, UHD’s Emergency Department is a critical point of entry into the healthcare system and an essential component of the community’s healthcare safety net.
Patients often arrive with symptoms that may reflect anything from a minor condition to a life-threatening event. Many also carry a heavy burden of chronic illness, including diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease, compounded by longstanding social and economic barriers to care.
Every day, emergency physicians must determine who requires immediate intervention, who needs further testing, and who can be safely managed without hospitalization. Over-admissions strain resources, and missing a serious condition can have devastating consequences. These decisions require access to evidence, ongoing education, and continuous evaluation of how care is delivered.
Downstate provides patient care, education, research, and quality improvement together in a single environment, where our ED is a frontline clinical setting where residents, fellows, and students apply evidence while balancing guidelines with clinical judgment.
ED faculty at UHD and Kings County Hospital have contributed to nationally recognized research that informed the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s guidelines on syncope, reflecting Downstate’s contributions to evidence-based care nationwide.
The redesign will enhance the ED’s operations and patient care while preserving its central role in medical education, clinical research, and patient care.
As the Downstate Emergency Department looks towards the future, its leadership recruits some of the brightest minds in medicine and public health, with most of the faculty having completed a fellowship in one of the many subspecialties of emergency medicine. We have new faculty joining this summer with a focus on simulation medicine, medical education, and the cross-section of public health and climate change.
The planned modernization will reshape the physical environment of the Emergency Department. Its mission, however, remains unchanged: providing care for the community, training future physicians, and contributing to the advancement of emergency medicine.
Tags: Emergency Medicine