HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
Jeffrey Flynn’s 18 Years at Gramercy Surgery Center!
A letter from Jeff:
18 years ago, today, I walked into 67 Irving Place and met a woman named Katy Chiang. We spoke for two hours about what she wanted to accomplish and how we could achieve that. At the end of the interview she told me that I was hired and if I wouldn’t mind, could I attend a meeting with her later that afternoon? That started what has been a tremendously fulfilling career where I have learned so much and developed lifelong friendships with many surgeons, staff and vendors.
In the following years we moved from our office-based facility to our two-operating room ASC to the expansion of four operating rooms and then our second home in Queens. We went from podiatry and urology to hosting over 10 specialties. We have been proud of being the first in many categories. The first ASC in New York to have a radiation program, the first to have a Bariatric program and the first to perform Medicare Lithotripsies. Most noted we were the first surgery Center in New York to be 100% Women owned.
The most significant accomplishments of this company have been the ability to change with the times and reinvent ourselves to meet new needs. Katy pushed for us to go out and make a name for Gramercy Surgery Center in the Healthcare Community. With her support we have achieved that on both the state and national level. The name we have made invokes quality of care, ethical treatment of all and has given us a reputation that others want to work with us. Through the years we have done many joint hospital programs but always remained independent and true to our goals.
Through these 18 years there has been all of life’s experiences with 43 weddings, 31 babies, 18 first homes bought and losing three of our doctors that meant the world to us. This year more than any other has been the most significant. For 17 years working with Katy day in and out, speaking to her two to three times a day even on weekends was our routine. Losing Katy has been the hardest death I have ever dealt with. But the most important lesson I learned from her is that we are all part of a bigger community that is more than one person. She very selflessly did a long good bye leaving things secure and gave those of us close to her the time to say goodbye. Six months later pictures from the past bring a smile and not a tear.
Again, in a whole life experience with loss comes a new energy and a renewed focus of growth and expansion with the entrance of Austin, Katy’s son, coming in to take over where she left off. Being his own person looking to contribute his talent to the Gramercy life he had the first obstacle of Covid-19 to move through. We have turned the page on that set back and regained our momentum. We reconnected with a distant opportunity in May and successfully have implemented a Retina Program in Queens in August. That is the new energy Austin brings to the fold and again, post COVID, the reinvention of Gramercy once again.
Looking back on 18 years of Gramercy I am thankful from the bottom of my heart that Katy shared her Gramercy dream with me and all the amazing people along the way. But far more important, her wish is that we look to the future of Gramercy with a renewed energy and hope of our success to the next level. That is the true “Gramercy Difference”
