Clinic gets checkup

Old Morris Park TB sanitorium now high-tech facility

A FORMER sanitorium for tuberculosis patients has been transformed into a state-of-the-art facility for education, research and medical care in the Bronx.

The Nathan B. Van Etten Hospital, owned by Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Morris Park, opened in 1954. It was slated for demolition in recent years.

But the college decided to give the 350,000-square-foot facility a new lease on life, and just completed a massive renovation for the Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center last week. The center provides care to more than 7,000 kids with developmental and intellectual disabilities a year.

“It’s the only real facility in the city where impaired kids can get dental care,” said Dr. Allen Spiegel, the Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz dean of the college. “CERF facilities are currently scattered at several sites. The goal is to consolidate the entire program within Van Etten.”

For the education component, two wings of the building were converted into a “clinical skills center” that consists of doctors’ offices and simulation features. There is an intensive care unit for students to study and practice obstetrics.

In an ironic twist, the white Y-shaped building still has balconies created at a time when people believed sunlight healed tuberculosis, an infectious disease that affects the lungs.

Investigator Bill Jacobs, who works out of the fifth floor of the revamped center, is currently working on vaccines to prevent and treat the disease.

“It’s come full circle,” said Spiegel.

There is also more room for research, where notable doctors like Nir Barzilai, who started the Longevity Genes Project as part of a decades-long aging investigation, will be able to conduct their studies.

“The benefit to the city and overall to research going forward will have an impact worldwide,” said Spiegel.

Much of the renovation was done with artisanal materials from local sources; for example, wooden doors were made by craftsmen from City Island.

“We made every effort to utilize the resources of the neighborhood,” said Spiegel, who added that creating jobs was a big part of overhauling the facility.