DR. ERIC LEGOME DISCUSSES ST. VINCENT'S HOSPITAL'S EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AT SEMINAR SPONSORED BY ITALIAN CONSULATE
11/21/2008
- Draws on St. Vincent's experience as the first responder to the 9/11 attacks -
Contact: Mary Mooney
(212) 604-2675
New York, NY - November 20, 2008 - Dr. Eric Legome, chairman of emergency services at St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan, today represented the hospital on a panel for the Italian Consulate-sponsored seminar 'One Hundred Years after the Strait of Messina Earthquake: Emergency Management from Solidarity to Efficiency' at the Italian Academy at Columbia University.
'The field of emergency medicine is always evolving, and it is important to study past efforts to note progress and gain insights on how we can better respond to future emergencies,' said Dr. Legome.
The seminar examined the response of public institutions to the strategic challenge of emergency management over the last one hundred years, when an earthquake in Italy's Strait of Messina took the lives of more than 80,000 people and destroyed a whole town. Dr. Legome addressed St. Vincent's response to 9/11 attacks and the modern needs of emergency response teams in front of an audience of diplomats, UN officials, emergency medicine professionals and students in the field of emergency medicine.
'As the primary responder to the 9/11 attacks, St. Vincent's has recent experience dealing with a mass emergency that required a large-scale, coordinated effort of internal and external resources,' said Dr. Legome. 'St. Vincent's response on 9/11 demonstrated a well-coordinated effort that reached beyond the immediate needs and generated long-term programs to help those who were impacted by the attacks.'
S. Vincent's Hospital has been involved in the provision of emergency medicine almost since its inception in 1848. Over the last 160 years, St. Vincent's emergency physicians, nurses and paramedics have been on the front lines responding to many of our City's natural and man-made disasters, including both treating survivors of the Titanic sinking, those hurt in the Triangle Shirt Waist fire, and victims from the bombing of the World Trade Center.
-more-
The event scheduled on November 20th consisted of three sessions dedicated to crisis management: general aspects of emergency management; medical aspect for emergency operations; and technical intervention for the recovery of national artistic assets damaged during the catastrophe.
About Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Centers
Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers (Saint Vincent's) is anchored by St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan, an academic medical center located in Greenwich Village and the only emergency room on the Westside of Manhattan from Midtown to Tribeca, St. Vincent's Westchester, a behavioral health hospital in Westchester County, and continuing care services that include two skilled nursing facilities in Brooklyn, another on Staten Island, a hospice, and a home health agency serving the Metropolitan New York area. Its behavioral health services also provide supportive housing programs for people with mental illness throughout the Metropolitan area. Saint Vincent's is the designated provider for the New York and New Jersey region of the US Family Health Plan sponsored by the US Department of Defense.
Saint Vincent's serves as the academic medical center of New York Medical College in New York City. The healthcare organization is sponsored by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn and the president of the Sisters of Charity of New York.
