continuity of emergency rooms

It’s funny... I’ve spent six years living by Columbia, mere feet away from St Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, which proudly advertises itself as the “University Hospital of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons”. I always thought this was mighty convenient, given the association of college life and stupefyingly amusing injuries (eg dropping a fire hydrant on your foot), bar fights eventuating in serious scalp wounds, and even the extremely serious. Even during my time living on 113th, when there was a near-constant flow of ambulances with sirens screaming down the street at 1 AM, I liked the certainty of having an emergency room less than a football field’s length away.

I was feeling as though I was going to miss the now-reassuring cadence of red and blue lights and ululating tones moving down to Fordham, but no sooner do I arrive than I notice there’s just as amany ambulances on 60th as there were on 113th. It’s not till I stroll down to 59th a few days later to get some soap that I see why: there’s a hospital just a block away from me again. It seems vaguely familiar... and claims to be the University Hospital of the... you know. It’s St Luke’s-Roosevelts again. Right next door. Just like always. Guess they have two campuses.

How’s that for some continuity?