WPCNR Vital Signs. September 14, 2006:  Kylie and Louis Cappelli were honored with the unveiling of  a plaque naming the White Plains Hospital Center 12-bed Pediatric Emergency Center in recognition of The Cappelli Foundation $1,000,000 gift and $500,000 donated at last year’s Grand Opening Benefit Gala for Trump Tower at City Center towards the construction cost of the PEC.

Louis Cappelli, "The Super Developer"  told WPCNR “The Foundation’s Mission Statement is we want to help kids. When we heard of this project, we very much wanted to be a part of  it and part of White Plains Hospital Center. We’re building in White Plains. We’re building in Westchester. We always want to give back. It was the right thing.” Mr. Cappelli and his wife, Kylie stand with Paul Weissman,Chairman of White Plains Hospital Center, left, and Jon Schandler, hospital CEO at Wednesday evening's naming ceremony. Photo, WPCNR News.

At a gathering of dignataries who included State Senator Nicholas Spano, ( Shown above with The Super Developer  and Kylie Cappelli), Assemblyman Adam Bradley, Mayor Joseph Delfino of White Plains, Councilman Glen Hockley, and assorted luminaries, Mr. Cappelli said, "We are also impressed with the comprehensive level of services which will be provided to children in need at the new Pediatric Center."  The plaque naming the Pediatric Emergency Center for Louis and Kylie Cappelli is framed at the right. Photo, WPCNR News.

Dr. Thomas Haydock, Director of Emergency Services, said the Pediatric Emergency Center will open in September 2008, and it will be the first and only emergency treatment facility designed, equipped and customized to treat 12 children at a time, each in private rooms, custom-equipped with medical technology -- sized for treating children. Photo, WPCNR News

Haydock , who has been guiding the busiest emergency room in Westchester County for the last two years, is enthusiastic about the new level of care the Pediatric Emergency Center offers children. Twelve of the 42 new emergency rooms being built in the hospital’s new emergency wing will be devoted to child care exclusively in the new wing. He said the hospital is in the process of hiring a team of pediatric emergency medicine physicians to staff the new facility. The development of the PEC and selection of staff is being supervised by Dr. Jolie Yuknek.

The PEC will separate children from the adult patients, with a separate waiting room in a more comforting environment away from the frightening tumult of the daily emergency room activity. The rooms in the wing Haydock said,would be private and decorated and more comforting than the curtain and open bay environment characterizing the general emergency room, that Haydock said can be very scary for childen.

Jon Schandler, Hospital President and CEO of White Plains Hospital Center told WPCNR,  the PEC was “clearly something we wanted to do. We’ve needed it forever. It’s smart for kids, and will have special equipment special treatment.”

Schandler said the new Flanzer Emergency Room which will include the Pediatric Emergency Center, would be constructed simultaneously while continuing operations of the present emergency center. He said planning for the simultaneous mix of treatment and construction is underway and one of his major concerns.

All Ambulances Come to White Plains

and Private Cars, too.

Haydock said White Plains Hospital Emergency Room will serve 47,000 patients in 2006, up from 30,000 patients three years ago. Haydock told WPCNR when asked if the financial decisions that resulted in the closings of United Hospital in Port Chester and St. Agnes Hospital in White Plains had been a miscalculation on the part of the area medical decision-makers, said “that’s part of it.”

He also said people have changed the way they seek health care and how they make decisions. He told WPCNR the emergency room traffic has been swelled due to the public developing the habit of going to the emergency room for care immediately instead of waiting to make appointments with their own doctors. “People who have their own doctors, now go to the emergency room to get care,” Haydock said. WPHC’s emergency room has a “sophisticated” triage management team that sorts out seriousness of cases as they come in. Still, waits in the emergency room can be as long as three hours.

At 47,000 patients a year going through the WPHC emergency room, this works out to 130 patients a day, 6 patients an hour, on average.