Roland Zemla

Engulfed in a battle on multiple fronts with residents of Greenwich Village and city officials over its proposed redevelopment, St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center has recently become the focus of public speculation over the sustainability of its trauma center and emergency department. A closure of St. Vincent’s trauma center would increase volume at Morningside Heights’ St. Luke’s Hospital Center, which has the only other center on the west side.

For the Columbia University Medical Center, the classic patient-chart system may soon become an element of the past, as the center introduces major steps to fully digitalize its patient records.

Ever since the closing of St. Vincent’s Midtown hospital, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center has been feeling the crunch associated with more patients. The volume of traffic at St. Luke’s emergency room has increased almost twofold, according to Dr. Dan Weiner, chairman of Emergency Medicine at the hospital. Because of this influx, a recent $15 million allocation devoted to the expansion of the hospital emergency room at the Roosevelt campus was, according to Weiner, both necessary and inevitable.

Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health has a new dean and she plans to take advantage of her new city.

Internet users experienced spotty connections across Columbia networks Sunday evening.

Nobel laureate and Columbia neuroscience professor Eric Kandel discussed and signed his recent autobiography Tuesday night.

Anne Rollow Sullivan, who just returned to Columbia this October as executive vice president of finance, now oversees a $2.5 billion budget.