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The 1990s brought another change. As the communities surrounding the Park yuppie-fied, the hospital had to upgrade to remain competitive. A new CEO added a modern wing to the hospital and a doctors' office block just above a large bookshop. An underground parking lot completed the deal. Now you could visit a NYPH doctor, park your car and sip a cup of Starbucks coffee at the bookshop. Why go to Manhattan?

Concurrently, tougher accreditation requirements by the various specialty boards began to prevail, with the undeclared intention of eliminating "Third World-like residency programs" and decrease the number of foreign graduates entering the country. In order to save the failing residencies programs, better qualified department heads and faculty members had to be imported from the outside, creating new tensions with the pre-existing old guards.

From the street level, the Park has never looked so good. Step inside and see its ample, fully carpeted lobby with mock Edwardian furniture. One of the many renovated elevators will take you up to the patient floors. The corridors are polished, the walls covered with reproductions of classic and modern artists. Peep into the patient rooms—a five-star hotel!

Finally, after all those years Manhattan has come to Brooklyn. No doubt this is the place to bring your mom, wife or child, or even yourself. It is nearby and convenient. They say that the food is excellent, and the nurses smile and talk in broad Brooklyn accents. Sure, everybody knows that for the treatment of cancer the Memorial Hospital on the East Side is the best in the world, but try to go there—what a schlep. Yes, all those medical web pages on the Internet talk about the advantages of university hospitals, but we trust the Park, and besides, it is now affiliated with the Manhattan University.