Filling a void left by the shuttering of St. Vincent’s Hospital, Beth Israel Medical Center has been hit with a flood of patients, turning its emergency room into what can best be described as orderly chaos.

Just one week since the bankrupt 160-year-old West Village Catholic institution stopped accepting ambulances, Beth Israel has seen a 25% jump in walk-in patients – and hit an all-time high for daily admissions.

Two days after St. Vincent’s stopped the ambulances on April 11, 96 ambulances pulled up to the East Side hospital, nearly double the emergency traffic Beth Israel would have on a normal day.

“We were inundated…and today is approaching that,” said physician’s assistant Umberto DeJesus, looking weary after a shift that saw 339 patients registered in the ER.

“But that’s the nature of it,” he said, smiling.

Dubbed “the buses,” ambulances pouring into the E. 16th St. ER bay were from the FDNY, Hatzoloh, St. Vincent’s, other private companies and Beth Israel’s own fleet. Being the nearest ER to St. Vincent’s, Beth Israel’s boost in ER activity was anticipated. Officials added extra nurses to triage duty, extended the hours for elective surgeries and opened clinical services hours earlier.

Beth Israel normally treats up to 90,000 people in its ER annually, said Dr. Gregg Husk, chair of emergency medicine. This year, he said, the ER is on track to treat 112,000. The escalating volume of patients is on par with “what you would expect if we were absorbing 40% of the 60,000 ER visits seen a year at St. Vincent’s,” Husk said.

This is the second surge in patients Beth Israel has been forced to tackle in the past two years; the first was when Cabrini Medical Center in nearby Gramercy Park closed in 2008.

(Read More: NY Daily News)