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07/30/2012 12:01 AM

"NY Med" Documents Real Life Drama At City's Top Hospital

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Staffers at a hospital in Washington Heights are the stars of a new hit television show that gives an up-close and very personal look at day-to-day life inside New York Presbyterian Medical Center. NY1's Cheryl Wills filed the following report.

In an unprecedented move, a small army of cameras recently set up shop at New York Presbyterian for a full year and followed the day to day real life drama at the hospital in Washington Heights.

"NY Med" is a hit on ABC with more than four million viewers tuning in each week. The docu-series follows patients and doctors through sometimes terrifying ordeals. And it's quickly turning ordinary surgeons like Dr. Q into Rock Stars.

Dr. Robert Kelly is the President of New York Presbyterian and calls it a win-win for the hospital staff.

"It's a great opportunity for people to see what really happens inside hospitals because they were here and nobody was acting. They were just shooting what happens on a day to day basis," says Kelly.

U.S. News and World Report recently ranked New York Presbyterian as number one in New York and among the top 10 in the nation. And that's a big reason why ABC chose the hospital for its eight part series.

"You definately get the flavor of New York here. You get homeless people coming into the ER, you have retired actresses, we had a Tony Award winning director, we had a headline writer for the New York Post who was hit by a taxi and he came in and was still writing headlines on the ER gurney," says "NY Med" Executive Producer Terry Wrong.

As for cameras inside a hospital where there are major privacy issues at stake, hospital executives say it turned out not to be a big deal after all.

"When the cameras come in everybody feels that but quite frankly they felt it for a very short time because they get back into what they are doing which is taking care of patients," says Kelly.

"We're kinda of like a SWAT team. We go in and embed ourselves in the hospital. We wear scrubs, we've taken hygiene training and HIPA training," Wrong adds.

"NY Med" runs on ABC until August 28.